Roulette
by Follow-The-Firefly
Summary: AkuRoku Axel is the new kid. When he meets Roxas, his whole world is turned upside down. Will he tell Roxas how he feels about him? And does Roxas feel the same way? Rated T for Teen. AU
1. New Kid

**Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts, no matter what anyone says.**

**It's Mika-chan! And this is my first KH fanfic! Since I don't actually play the games (message me if you want the whole story), I might not be getting some of the facts right. If I make a mistake, please let me know. One of my friends is helping me with facts and stuff, but I might still get stuff wrong. At least I know who the people are, right? Anyway...let the deadly tale begin!**

Axel walked through the crowded hallways of Melancholy Academy. _Strange name for a school _he thought as he tried to find A213. A teacher at the front office had told him that the 200 classes were upstairs. Climbing a set of stairs, he met a boy at the top with a strange Mohawk and green eyes, holding a blue guitar.

"Where are you headed?" the boy asked.

"A213." Axel said, trying not to sound nervous, "English with Andrews-sensei."

"You new here?"

Axel nodded.

"I'm headed there myself. The name's Demyx, by the way."

"I'm Axel." Axel said, "Can you show me where to go?"

"No problem." The boy called Demyx said, leaning against the blue guitar, "We should be going now."

Axel followed Demyx to the classroom. There weren't a lot of kids there, much to Axel's relief. Demyx led him over to a group of kids talking toward the back of the room.

"Guys, this is Axel. He just moved here from…where did you say you were from again?" Demyx turned to face the redhead.

"Traverse Town." Axel said.

"Well, this is Kairi, Sora and Riku." Demyx said, pointing to each, "Sora, where is Roxas?"

"In the office." Sora said, "He forgot his Algebra homework."

"He actually did it?" Kairi looked at her friend in amazement.

"I didn't say he did it." Sora smiled.

"Who is Roxas?" Axel asked, setting his backpack on the ground.

"Sora's twin brother." Demyx explained.

"He's always getting in trouble for something." Kairi smiled.

A bell rang signalling the beginning of class. Axel chose to sit next to Demyx, leaving Sora to sit next to Riku. About halfway through the class, just when they were learning about jargons, the door opened and a boy walked in. _This must be Roxas. _Axel watched him sit in his seat against the wall behind Kairi. He looked exactly like Sora. Axel felt a funny feeling in his stomach that he didn't get when he had met Sora. Once class was over, Kairi walked off with Sora and Riku. Roxas tagged along with Demyx and Axel to Algebra. Axel got the opportunity to sit next to Roxas while Demyx sat in the front row.

"So…why did you move here?" Roxas asked Axel as they worked on a warm-up.

"My mom got transferred." Axel said, copying the math problem from the board to his paper, "Her job requires her to move around a lot."

"How many times have you moved?" Roxas asked.

"5 times from the time I was born." Axel said, now solving the problem.

"What about your dad?" Roxas wanted to know.

Axel didn't say anything for a minute. Roxas was afraid that he had touched a nerve unintentionally. Then the redhead said, "I've never known my father."

"You do have one, don't you?" Roxas chose his words carefully, not wanting to upset Axel.

"I did." Axel said, pretending to concentrate on his warm-up. Roxas had abandoned his entirely, trying to figure out what Axel was talking about.

"My mom said that he died before I was born." Axel said.

"Oh." Roxas didn't know what to say. "I'm sorry."

"It's ok." Axel said, "My mom said that he wouldn't have been a good father."

"Do you have any brothers or sisters?" Roxas inquired.

"Nope." Axel said, setting his pencil down, having finished his warm-up.

"Lucky." Roxas leaned back in his chair, "Sora annoys the crap out of me."

"I'd like to have a brother or sister." Axel said. It was very easy to talk to Roxas. It wasn't like being around Demyx or Kairi. He felt like he could be very open with Roxas.

"Trust me." Roxas said, "You don't. Sora's a pain in the ass."

"I bet he says the same thing about you." Axel smiled.

"He does." Roxas smiled back, "So…do you know your way around the place?"

"A little bit." Axel said, "Just from my house to school."

"We were going to go hang out at Station Plaza after school." Roxas said, "Wanna join us?"

"Sure." Axel didn't have anything better to do.

They had to stop their conversation because they were going over the warm-up. After Algebra, Axel parted with Roxas and met up with Riku and Sora in Gym. After changing out of his school clothes and into the gym uniform, Axel joined Riku and Sora in the gym. They were sitting under a basketball hoop, talking.

"What are you guys talking about?" Axel asked as he sat down next to Riku on the hard gym floor.

"What movie we're going to watch on Friday." Riku said.

"We're having a sleep-over type thing at Riku's house." Sora explained.

"Are Kairi and Roxas going?" Axel asked.

"Yep." Riku said, running a hand through his silver hair, "You can come too if you want."

"What time?" Axel asked.

"Eh…meet Roxas and Sora at Sunset Station at 7." Riku said, "Is that ok, Sora?"

"It's fine by me." Sora said.

"What movies are we watching?" Axel asked.

"Riku wants to watch _Scary Movie 3. _I know Kairi wants to watch _Music and Lyrics._" Sora said, rolling his eyes, "Roxas will probably want to watch _Mr. Brooks._"

"What do you want to watch, then?" Riku raised his eyebrows.

"I dunno…" Sora sighed, "Maybe an _Indiana Jones _movie or _Nightmare on Elm Street._" He turned his attention to Axel. "What do you want to watch?"

"I just got _Vincent_." Axel said.

"That's a pretty good one." Riku noted, "Why don't you bring some movies? That way, we can decide on what to watch. Sora, you and Roxas bring some, too."

"Sounds good to me." Sora said, "I really don't want to watch _Music and Lyrics._"

After gym, Axel followed Riku and Sora to the cafeteria where they met up with Demyx, Kairi and Roxas. They were sitting at a picnic table outside, eating their lunch when Demyx asked, "Hey, is Larxene coming on Friday?"

"I hope not." Riku shuddered, "She's annoying."

"She's not annoying, Riku." Demyx said, drumming his fingers on his guitar.

"Larxene is Demyx's girlfriend." Kairi explained to Axel.

"She talks too much." Riku said, taking a bite of his potato salad.

"So do I, but you don't say anything about that." Demyx pointed out.

"Have I met Larxene yet?" Axel asked as he dipped a chicken nugget in barbeque sauce.

"Not yet." Roxas said.

"She's not that bad, really." Sora said, "She's no Riku…"

"What do you mean?" Axel asked, feeling like he was missing something.

"Sora and Riku didn't tell you?" Kairi looked at Riku and Sora in amazement.

"Didn't tell me what?" Axel really felt confused.

"That we're going out." Riku said with a smile.

"You two are going out?" Axel repeated.

"You don't like gay people?" Demyx raised his eyebrows.

"I have nothing against gay people." Axel assured him, "You guys don't act like it though."

"Most of the school thinks being gay is weird." Riku explained, "That's why we didn't tell you. We didn't know if you'd tell anyone."

"I won't say anything if you don't want me to." Axel promised.

"We'll let everyone know eventually." Sora said, resting his head on Riku's shoulder.

"What class do you have next, Axel?" Roxas asked, changing the subject.

"Uh…" Axel had to dig through his backpack to find his schedule. Once he fished it out, he looked for the last class of the day. "Psychology with Redmond."

"You're with me again." Roxas smiled.

"Roxas is the only one here who wanted to take Psychology." Demyx explained, "Everyone else thought it was a wimpy class."

"I took Sociology at my old school." Axel said, "It was one of the more popular classes."

"Really?" Demyx looked surprised, "Not many people want to take it here."

"What are you guys talking about now?" Kairi asked, taking a bite of her apple.

"We're starting sleep and subconscious states." Roxas said.

The bell rang, signalling the start of the last class. Axel followed Roxas back inside the cafeteria, up the stairs and down a hallway. After entering the 3rd door on the right, Axel's eyes met the strangest room layout he'd ever seen. There were no desks: small Japanese style tables lined the room. Where a chair usually was, there was a cushion on the floor. The walls were painted dark blue and had paintings of famous psychologists like Freud and Piaget. Axel had never seen anything like it in his life. Roxas, however, acted like nothing unusual was happening. Axel sat down next to him at one of the tables, setting his backpack beside him.

"Bet your old room wasn't like this, huh?" Roxas smiled.

"Definitely not." Axel said.

"Sensei likes old Japanese things." Roxas explained, "He used to live there for a while."

"I've never been to Japan." Axel said.

"Neither have I." Roxas said, putting his head on the table.

The teacher, Redmond-Sensei, walked into the room a minute later. After assigning Axel a textbook, he allowed him to go to the library with Roxas so he could catch up on what they missed.

"Today was supposed to be a make-up day." Roxas explained as they walked down the hall to the library, "I wasn't going to do anything anyway."

"I think I already did this stuff." Axel said, looking at some papers in his hand.

Roxas opened the door to the library. The circulation desk was in the middle, surrounded by large tables. Shelves of books filled both sides of the room along with several tables of computers.

"Do you want to use a computer?" Roxas asked.

"Nah." Axel shook his head, "I'll write it out."

The two boys sat down at a table and started to work. Well, Axel did. Roxas looked through his textbook, writing down the vocab for the upcoming chapter so he would be ahead. When Axel finally finished, they only had a few minutes left of class. Standing by the door, Roxas said, "So, you're coming to the Plaza with us?"

"Sure." Axel said, "My mom won't be home until later. She said I could hang out if I met any friends."

"And you obviously have." Roxas smiled.

* * *

When Axel got home, it was almost 4:30. He'd been at Station Plaza since school let out at 2:30. Demyx had introduced him to Larxene and Vexen, one of his other friends. Setting his backpack in the hallway, Axel walked into the kitchen to find his mom making dinner.

"What's up?" he asked.

"Where were you?" her tone wasn't demanding; just curious.

"I was at Station Plaza with some friends." Axel said.

"So you met some friends today, huh?" his mother sounded pleased, "Who are they?"

"Roxas and his brother Sora, Kairi, Riku and Demyx." Axel said, "And Demyx's girlfriend, but she's really annoying."

"Do you have any homework tonight?" his mother wanted to know.

"Nope." Axel leaned against the wall, "I'm going to spend the night at Riku's on Friday."

"What will you be doing?"

"Watching movies." Axel said, "I'm gonna look through mine. When is dinner going to be done?"

"In an hour." His mother said.

"I'll be in my room, then." Axel announced.

He left the kitchen and walked up the stairs to a hallway. Walking into his room, he found his stack of movies. Searching through them, he found _Vincent _as well as _Corpse Bride, Remember the Titans, 1408 _and _Silence of the Lambs_. Axel set the videos on his desk by his purple and orange lava lamp. Leaning against the wall, Axel had a feeling that he was going to like Twilight Town better than he had imagined.

**It seems dull now, but it picks up later. Let me know of any mistakes i make. Thanks!**

**Next chapter: It's movie night at Riku's! What movies do they watch?**


	2. Movie Night

**Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts in any way. If I did, Roxas wouldn't have left Organization 13.**

**It's Mika-chan! I hope you guys like this story. It's kinda dull now, but I think it'll get better. Let the tale continue!**

Axel was waiting at Sunset Station on Friday for Roxas and/or Sora. Beside him was his bag of clothes and movies. He had brought several videos, including _Hannibal Rising, Remember the Titans, Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl, Snakes on a Plane, Tora! Tora! Tora!, Saving Private Ryan _and _The Shining_. Axel had a feeling that Demyx would want to watch _Pirates of the Caribbean. _He was about to leave, thinking that they weren't coming when Roxas showed up.

"I was beginning to think that you weren't coming." Axel said, picking up his bag so he could meet up with Roxas.

"Sora isn't coming." Roxas scowled.

"Is he ok?" Axel frowned.

"Oh, he's ok." Roxas shrugged, "I meant he's not here with me right now."

"Then where is he?" Axel was still confused as the two boys left the station.

"He's at Riku's house." Roxas said, "Probably makin' out, if you ask me."

"You don't like Riku, do you?" Axel felt that this was a safe assumption to make.

"I like Riku." Roxas said, "I'm just annoyed."

"What are you annoyed about?" Axel asked, shifting his flaming red hair out of his emerald eyes.

"That he's found someone that he wants to spend the rest of his life with and I haven't." Roxas scowled.

"You'll find someone." Axel said.

He almost wanted to say something right then and there. But he knew that Roxas wouldn't take him seriously. Axel wasn't even sure of his feelings yet. Something told him that he couldn't deny them, but he didn't want to give in to them.

"I guess so." Roxas shrugged noncommittally, "I wouldn't even care if I fell for a guy. Well, Mom might."

"Why would your mom care?" Axel looked into the cerulean eyes.

"She already has one son who's gay." Roxas said, "I don't think she'd like it if I was gay, even though I probably am."

"You know already?" Axel raised his eyebrows.

"I guess so." Roxas said, "You know who Sayu is?"

"Isn't she the blonde chick in our Psychology class that all of the guys think is hot?"

"That's just it!" Roxas threw his hands in the air.

"What is?" Axel frowned.

"I don't think she's hot." Roxas said, "I think her boyfriend is hot."

"Her boyfriend?" Axel raised his eyebrows in surprise.

"I'm weird, I know." Roxas said.

"I don't think you're weird, Roxas." Axel said.

"You don't?" Roxas looked at Axel in surprise.

"Nope." Axel shook his head.

They arrived at Riku's a few minutes later. Everyone seemed to be in the living room. Sora and Riku were playing _Metroid Prime _on Riku's playstation when Axel and Roxas arrived.

"Did you bring any movies, Axel?" Riku asked as he shut off the game system.

"A few." Axel said, "What are we doing first?"

"Waiting for Demyx and Larxene to get back." Riku said, sitting down on the green couch against the wall.

"Where did they go?" Roxas asked as he took off his shoes.

"I think they went back to Demyx's house." Riku said, "He forgot to bring the chips."

"So we're eating too?" Axel assumed.

"Of course we're eating!" Sora exclaimed, jumping up and down.

"Well, when Demyx and Larxene get back, what are we doing?" Axel questioned, taking out his DVDs.

"We're gonna start a movie." Riku said, "I hope you brought something better than Larxene did."

"What did she bring?" Roxas asked.

"_Titanic _and _Sleepless in Seattle_." Riku rolled his eyes.

"Don't forget _The Princess Bride _and _Hairspray_." Sora prompted.

"Isn't that a musical?" Axel didn't watch many musicals, but he had heard of _Hairspray_.

"Yep." Sora nodded.

"And where's Kairi?" Roxas looked around the living room. "Isn't she coming?"

"She's downstairs. Go get her, Sora." Riku commanded.

Sora scowled, but did as he was told. Demyx walked back inside, carrying several bags of chips.

"Where's Larxene?" Riku asked.

"Her mom found out that she was coming here." Demyx replied, "I could call Xemnas or Marluxia if you want extra people."

"That's ok." Sora said as he joined the group with Kairi, "I don't think they like us very much."

"So what movie are we watching first?" Kairi asked, sitting down on the couch next to Sora.

"Not _The Phantom of the Opera_." Roxas said.

"I love that movie!" Kairi protested.

"I don't." Roxas said.

"We've noticed." Axel said.

"Let's watch _Carrie._" Sora suggested.

"Who brought _Carrie_?" Riku asked.

"I did." Roxas said, sitting down on the couch next to Axel.

"I don't like _Carrie _very much." Axel said. "I brought _Snakes on a Plane_ if anyone wants to watch that."

"That movie creeps me out." Kairi shivered.

"Come on, Kairi!" Sora sighed, "You get freaked out at everything!"

"At this rate, we won't be watching anything." Demyx said, "I brought _Corpse Bride _so we can watch that."

"Any objections?" Roxas asked, sounding very much like a judge in a courtroom.

"Sounds good to me." Axel said.

"Throw it in, Demyx." Riku said, too lazy to get off the couch.

Demyx put the DVD in the DVD player. After going through the menu, the movie started. They were about halfway through when Roxas fell asleep.

"Should we wake him up?" Axel asked Sora. "It's only 10."

"You can wake him up if you want." Sora said, leaning against Riku. "I personally like him better asleep."

Axel rolled his eyes and turned his attention back to the movie. Demyx had long since fallen asleep. He looked at Kairi and asked, "Think we should throw something at him?"

"That sounds mean, Axel." Kairi protested.

"So?" Riku said from the couch. "Demyx's annoying. What do you want to throw at him, Axel?"

"What do you have?" Axel asked.

"Throw the remote at him." Sora suggested.

Axel picked up the remote from the end-table by the couch and threw it at Demyx. He sat up with a start and looked around to figure out who had woken him up.

"It was Axel." Riku said, pointing at Axel.

"Thanks, Riku." Axel said sarcastically.

"Don't mention it." Riku smiled.

Once _Corpse Bride _was over, Demyx decided that it was time to eat something. Riku opened a bag of sour cream and onion chips and poured everyone a bowl of chips. As he passed out the chips, Axel said, "What now?"

"I wanna play video games!" Sora exclaimed.

"Sora, this is a movie night, not a video game night." Roxas told his twin.

"Did anyone bring any musicals?" Kairi asked.

"No musicals, Kairi." Roxas said.

"But I like musicals." Kairi pouted.

"But we're guys." Demyx said, leaning against the couch. "That means that we don't."

"But all you guys want to watch are scary movies." Kairi protested.

"Yep." Sora and Roxas nodded.

"Then why don't we watch _RENT_?" Riku suggested, sitting down on the couch.

"That's a musical." Kairi noted.

"But it's a good musical." Riku corrected her.

"But you just said that guys hated musicals." Kairi frowned.

"_RENT _is an exception." Axel said. "A lot of guys like _RENT_, Kairi. They did at my old school anyway."

"Did anyone even bring _RENT_?" Demyx asked.

"I have it." Riku said.

"Go get it." Roxas ordered, too lazy to go get it himself.

Riku glared at Roxas, but went to get the movie. Axel, Roxas and Kairi laid out their sleeping bags on the floor close to the TV. Once Riku found the movie and started it, all was quiet again. Axel tried to stay awake, wanting to see the movie, but soon fell asleep.

**Review, please!**

**Next chapter: just another day at school. but axel has something on his mind...**


	3. Breakfast at Riku's

**Disclaimer: Still don't own Kingdom Hearts.**

**It's Mika-chan! This was a fun chapter to write. Enjoy!**

When Roxas woke up the next morning, he wondered what time it was. Looking at the clock on the wall, he learned that it was indeed 8:47. Sighing, Roxas tried to turn over on his back, but found that he couldn't. Looking on his back, he discovered that Axel was using his back as a pillow.

"Come on, Axel. I'm not a pillow." Roxas smiled.

He managed to turn over on his back so that Axel was now sleeping on Roxas' stomach. Roxas rolled his eyes and said, "Wake up, Axel."

He tried to push Axel off, but Axel wouldn't budge.

"Axel, get up."

"I don't want to…" came Axel's tired reply.

Roxas smiled. Now that Axel was awake, it wouldn't be so hard to get him off.

"Axel, wake up already. This feels weird."

Axel sighed and sat up, rubbing his emerald green eyes.

"Sorry about that." Axel said.

"It's ok." Roxas said, sitting up.

"You're really soft, you know that?"

Roxas stared at Axel for a few seconds, trying to decide if Axel was joking or not. Axel grinned sheepishly.

"No one's ever told me that." Roxas said.

"I guess I'm the first." Axel said, "But it's true."

"If you say so." Roxas said, blushing slightly.

"Shall we find the others?" Axel asked, unzipping his blue sleeping bag.

"That would be a good idea." Roxas said.

Axel followed Roxas out of the living room and into the kitchen, where everyone was sitting at the circular table. Well, Riku was at the island, but did it really make a difference?

"About time you two wake up." Sora said.

"Axel was using me as a pillow." Roxas said.

"You should've pushed him off." Demyx said, running his fingers through his sandy-brown hair.

"He wouldn't move." Roxas said, "What's for breakfast?"

"We were waiting for you guys to get up." Riku said, "What do you guys feel like?"

"It doesn't really matter." Axel yawned.

"I'll have 12 pancakes, orange juice, 6 strips of bacon, 10 sausages…" Demyx rambled off, laughing.

"Funny, Demyx." Riku's words were dripping with sarcasm.

"I'm kidding, Riku." Demyx said.

Axel and Roxas sat down at the island while Riku searched the cabinets for breakfast food.

"I have pizza." Riku said.

"Riku, no one eats pizza for breakfast." Kairi said.

"Sora and I do." Roxas said.

"You more than me." Sora said.

"I'll have cereal, Riku." Kairi said.

"Same." Demyx said.

"That's three." Axel said.

"Is it safe to assume that everyone wants cereal?" Riku asked.

"That's a safe assumption, yes." Roxas said with a British accent, sounding like he was on a soap opera.

Riku brought several boxes of cereal over to the counter.

"We have…Fruit Loops, Lucky Charms, Life, and Special K." Riku announced.

"I'll take Life." Sora said.

"Same." Axel said.

"That makes three." Kairi said.

"Me, too." Roxas said.

"Demyx, are you going to be the odd one out, like usual?" Riku looked at Demyx.

"Of course, my friend!" Axel had a feeling that Demyx was the comic relief of the group.

"What'll you have, then?" Riku rolled his eyes, knowing he should be used to Demyx's antics by this point.

"Lucky Charms!" Demyx shouted.

"I think _some_one's a little excited." Kairi said.

"That's an understatement." Roxas said. "But then again, you're always like this, aren't you, Demyx?"

"I don't think so." Demyx said. "That's what everyone says, though."

Roxas looked at Axel, who had his head in his arms on the counter.

"Don't fall asleep, Axel." Roxas nudged the redhead slightly.

"I won't." Axel said.

Roxas smiled. He felt differently around Axel than he did with Demyx or Riku. Sora didn't count because Sora was his brother. Roxas was pretty sure he knew what this feeling was called, but he didn't want to jump to any hasty conclusions.

"Rox, you're spacing out again."

Roxas came back to reality when he heard the name 'Rox', a name that he truly detested.

"Who called me that?" he asked.

"Riku." Sora and Kairi said as one.

"Riku, I'm gonna murder you." Roxas said.

"You always say that." Riku smiled; leaning against the wall, bowl of cereal in hand.

"You don't like being called Rox?" Axel asked.

"Nope." Roxas shook his head.

"Why not?" Axel wanted to know.

"It doesn't sound right." Roxas said, "I've never found anyone who I don't mind saying it."

"Roxas has always been this weird, Axel." Sora said.

"Have not!" Roxas protested.

"What are we gonna do with the rest of the day?" Kairi asked, changing the subject.

"I have to meet Zexion, Saïx and Marluxia at the library." Demyx said.

"The library?" Riku frowned. "You _never _read, Demyx."

"Do so!" Demyx protested. "We're gonna go hang out by the train tracks later."

"What does Zexion do?" Kairi asked.

"What do you mean?" Demyx asked.

"He doesn't talk." Sora explained to Axel.

"Never?" Axel frowned. "Can he?"

"I guess he can." Demyx shrugged, "He just chooses not to."

"I wonder why." Riku said.

"How about we go to the mall or something?" Roxas suggested.

"Wait, Kairi and I have to work on that essay for English." Sora said.

"The one that we got two months ago that everyone got done?" Demyx asked.

"Kairi, I thought you'd already finished it?" Riku looked Kairi.

"I'm helping Sora." Kairi rolled her eyes.

"And I have to go to my grandparent's house." Riku scowled. "I forgot about that."

"And Demyx already has plans…" Roxas said. He turned his attention to Axel. "Do you have anything going on today?"

"Nope." Axel said.

"Then let's go to the mall together!" Roxas said eagerly. "I still need to show you around."

"Why you, Roxas?" Kairi asked, "Riku or someone else can do it."

"You all are doing something else today." Roxas said. "Axel needs to find his way around the place sooner or later. He could end up at the Old Mansion instead of Station Heights."

"That's not good." Riku said.

"Especially with all the rumours about the place." Demyx added.

"So wanna hang out today, Axel?" Roxas looked at the redhead.

"I don't have anything better to do." Axel nodded. "We'll have to drop our stuff off first."

"I need to tell mom, too." Roxas said. He turned to his brother and asked, "When's mom getting back?"

"Around noon, I think." Sora said.

"I'll meet you at your house, ok?" Roxas turned his attention back to Axel. "What's your address?"

"198 Midnight Alley." Axel said.

"I know where that is." Roxas said. "I'll come over around 12:30, ok?"

"Sounds good to me." Axel nodded.

"What time do you need to leave, Riku?" Demyx asked.

"Around noon, I think." Riku ran his fingers through his hair.

"We'll leave before then." Kairi said. "Besides, Sora's gonna need a lot of help with this essay."

"Make sure you don't do it for him." Riku said.

"I won't!" Kairi exclaimed.

"Like the essay on Hawthorne." Demyx smiled.

"How else was he going to get it done?" Kairi said.

"You should've let him fail, Kai." Roxas said.

"You should've." Sora agreed.

"I'm gonna get my stuff packed up." Axel said, putting his dirty dish in the sink. "I still need to finish unpacking some stuff."

"Ok." Riku said. "Your movies are on the TV."

"Ok." Axel said. "Thanks for having me over."

"No problem. Glad you could make it." Riku said.

Once Axel packed up his stuff, he made his way over to his house. His mother was in the living room, unpacking boxes of pictures.

"Mom, Roxas is coming over later so he can show me around town." Axel said.

"You're not going anywhere until you get your room finished." She said.

"I'll get it finished." Axel sighed, heading up to his room.

Upon entering his room, Axel found that his mother had set several large boxes on the floor. The redheaded teenager hadn't done much with his room yet. He had finished putting his bed and desk together and had yet to arrange the furniture. He had been sleeping on his mattress on the floor. Almost all of his posters were up. Most of them were movie posters like _300, Hannibal Rising, Silence of the Lambs, Pan's Labyrinth_ and _Downfall. _Some were for bands like Breaking Benjamin, My Chemical Romance, HIM, Marilyn Manson and Shinedown. All he really had left to do was put his clothes away and set up his furniture. Hopefully he would get it done before Roxas came over.

**Axel and Roxas at the mall? Interesting... RnR please!**

**Next chapter: Roxas and Axel go to the mall**


	4. An afternoon with Roxas

**Disclaimer: I still don't own Kingdom Hearts. I would love to, but that isn't possible, now is it?**

**It's Mika-chan! I finished Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories! I am now playing Riku's side, so I'm loving that. I need to know Axel's approximate age before he died in KH2 for Zephyr, another KH fanfic I'm working on. If anyone knows, please message me and let me know. Thanks. on with the chappie!**

Roxas walked up to Axel's front porch and rang the doorbell. A few moments later, a woman who Roxas assumed was Axel's mother, opened the door.

"I'm Roxas." Roxas introduced himself. "Is Axel home?"

"He's in his room." Axel's mother stepped back so Roxas could walk inside. "He's not allowed to leave until his room is finished."

"Would you like me to help him?" Roxas offered.

"I think he would like that." Axel's mother said.

Roxas nodded and walked up the stairs. Walking down the hall, he heard music blasting. He followed the sound of the music to the door where it was the loudest.

_Full of fear._

_Everclear._

_I'll be here fighting forever._

_Curious._

_Venomous._

_You'll find me climbing to heaven._

_Nnevermind._

_Turn back time._

_You'll be fine. _

_I will get left behind._

Roxas cracked the door open, just enough so he could see inside. Axel was… singing. And very well, at that. The redhead's body was swaying with the melody. And as the song broke into the chorus, Axel's emerald green eyes closed, concentrating hard on the lyrics that he was singing. He looked like he was putting every fiber of his being into the song.

_Show me what it's like to dream in black and white._

_So I can leave this world tonight._

_Holding on too tight._

_Breathe the breath of life. _

_So I can leave this world behind._

"Um, Axel?"

Axel stopped singing, looked at Roxas and said, "What's up?"

Roxas, opening the door and walking inside the room, said, "Just getting ready to go. Your mom said that you couldn't leave until your room was finished."

"It's almost done now." Axel said.

"Do you want me to help?" Roxas offered.

"Sure." Axel said.

It took the two a little over half an hour to finish everything. When everything was finally finished, they had to have Axel's mom approve of the set-up. Once that was done, they two started walking to the mall.

"What were you listening to?" Roxas asked.

"Unknown Soldier by Breaking Benjamin." Axel said. "It's one of my favourite ones."

"They sound nice." Roxas said. "Demyx listens to them a little."

"Somehow, that doesn't surprise me." The red head smiled, "So what are we going to do when we get to the mall?"

"Shop, of course!" Roxas replied.

"But that's something that girls do." Axel pointed out.

"I want to look for some cds." Roxas put his arms behind his head. "Is there anything that you want to look for?"

"I was going to look for the new Evanescence album." Axel answered.

"I didn't think you liked Evanescence." Roxas frowned as they arrived at the shopping district.

"Why not?" Axel looked at Roxas in confusion.

"Most guys don't like bands with female singers." Roxas said.

"I don't really care." Axel said. "So, where are we?"

"The shopping district." Roxas dropped his arms to his side. "I don't know if you've noticed, but Twilight Town has two districts: Residential and Shopping."

"I noticed that." Axel said, not wanting to sound stupid.

"Do you want to visit any of the shops before we hit the mall?" Roxas asked.

"Not really." Axel shrugged.

"Ok! The mall it is!" Roxas exclaimed eagerly.

Axel had to laugh at Roxas' energy. He had never before met anyone as energetic as him. And he wasn't energetic in an annoying way. It was very amusing to watch Roxas crash from too much caffeine. Axel still couldn't figure out how he felt about Roxas. He knew it was deeper than friendship. But what was it?"

"Axel, quit spacing out!"

Axel shook his head to clear his thoughts.

"Sorry, Rox." Axel said. Then, realizing that he had called Roxas by the name he hated, said, "Oops. Sorry about that."

Axel walked forward a few steps before realizing that Roxas had stopped walking. Turning to face his friend, Axel said, "Roxas?"

"Say it again."

Axel frowned. "Say what again?"

"What you just called me."

Roxas didn't sound like he was egging Axel on in any way, but the redhead was still hesitant to say, "Rox." again.

"It doesn't sound bad when you say it." Roxas said, catching up to Axel.

"When I call you Rox?" Axel wondered. "I thought you hated being called that?"

"The name itself doesn't bother me." Roxas explained. "It's just that whenever people call me Rox, it sounds weird."

"But it's ok if I say it?" Axel wondered if he understood Roxas clearly.

"It sounds nice when you say it." Roxas smiled as they reached the mall.

"Should I take that as a compliment?" Axel smiled, opening the door and walking inside.

"I guess you could." Roxas said.

They walked over to a large map of the mall, so Axel could get an idea of what stores were where. After going to FYE and getting some new music, they got some ice cream. While they were walking around, eating their ice cream, Axel said, "I'd rather be here than working on essays."

Roxas nodded, remembering where his twin brother was.

"Have I seen everything yet?" Axel asked, licking his chocolate ice cream cone.

"All that's here." Roxas replied. "I think you know where everything else is, right?"

"Pretty much." Axel nodded, "What are we going to do now?"

"It's only 3." Roxas said, looking at a nearby clock. "We could hang out some more. I don't have anything better to do."

"Neither do I." Axel said.

The two finished their ice cream and left the mall, walking toward the train tracks. Roxas decided that in order to get to know each other better, they should ask questions. Both thought it was slightly childish, but took on the challenge. They were sitting on the train tracks, asking each other questions.

"Ok…What's your favourite movie?" Roxas asked.

"_Hannibal Rising _or _RENT." _Axel replied.

"Is the movie good?" Roxas asked. "I've only read the book."

"There's a book?" Axel looked at his friend in amazement.

"Yeah." Roxas nodded. "I'll let you borrow it. It's really good."

"Thanks." Axel said. "So what's _your _favourite movie?"

"Either _The Shining _or _Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers._" Roxas replied.

"I'm still not done with book one." Axel admitted.

"Of _Lord of the Rings_?" Roxas asked.

The redhead nodded.

"I like the movies better."

"I do too." Roxas agreed. "Sora doesn't like them at all."

"How can you not like _Lord of the Rings_?" Axel questioned. "They're classic!"

"Who knows?" Roxas shrugged. "Was that your question or mine?"

"I ask you one." Axel replied. "Let's see…I think we've done all of the good ones."

"We probably have." Roxas shrugged. "What do you want to do now?"

"What time is it?" Axel asked. "I left my phone at home."

"It is…5:08." Roxas said, checking his cell phone.

"We should get going." Axel said, standing up, stretching his arms in front of him.

"We probably should." Roxas nodded.

The boys walked away from the train tracks and into the residential district of Twilight Town. When Roxas walked inside his house, he found Riku and Sora making out on the couch.

"Oi!" he yelled. "Don't be doing that on the couch!"

"No one was here." Sora said, getting off of Riku and sitting up.

"I am now." Roxas said, leaning against the counter.

"How was the mall?" Riku asked.

"Why are you even here?" Roxas asked Riku. "I thought you were supposed to be at your grandparent's house?"

"We decided not to go." Riku answered. "So how was the date with Axel?"

"It wasn't a date!" Roxas exclaimed, blushing red.

"Then why are you blushing, Roxas?" Sora smiled.

"I'm not blushing, Sora." Roxas said. "I'm going to play _Call of Duty._"

"Why are you telling us?" Riku asked as Roxas started walking up the steps.

"So you won't bug me."

Once Roxas reached his room, he turned on his computer and logged on to the Internet. Why had he gotten so annoyed when Riku used the words 'Axel' and 'date' in the same sentence? How exactly did he feel about Axel?

**Yes, Axel listens to Breaking Benjamin. at least he does in this story. Unknown Soldier is one of my favourite BB songs next to Follow and Until the End. **

**next chapter: a school play? what play is it? and who gets the lead role?**


	5. Avenue Q: Kingdom Hearts Style!

**Disclaimer: I would LOVE to own Kingdom Hearts. If I did, I'd be one happy fangirl. I don't own Avenue Q either, so don't ask.**

**It's Mika-chan! I had a blast writing this chapter! It'll make sense once you read it. Enjoy!**

"Avenue Q?"

The whole class looked at Andrews-sensei in surprise. They had walked into the classroom and found the script for Avenue Q on their desks. Almost everyone in the room had seen/heard of Avenue Q and couldn't see how they would get away with reading this play in class.

"It's time for our unit on plays. I figured that most of you would like Avenue Q since it deals with topics that you all enjoy." Andrews-sensei said, looking over his copy of the script. "So…let's assign parts. Who wants to be Princeton?"

"I'll do it." Sora raised his hand.

"Thank you, Sora." Andrews-sensei said. "Anyone up to being Brian?"

"I nominate Riku!" Sora exclaimed.

Riku glared at his friend, but said, "Sure."

"Anyone for Christmas Eve?" Andrews-sensei asked.

"Larxene." Demyx grinned.

"I'm going to kill you, Demyx." Larxene said threateningly.

"Will you do it?" Andrews-sensei asked.

"Why not?" Larxene shrugged.

"I'll be Nicky." Axel raised his hand. "And I want Roxas to be Rod."

"Is that ok, Roxas?" Andrews-sensei asked.

"It's fine by me." Roxas smiled.

"Kairi, will you be Kate?"

"Sure." Kairi said.

"Which leaves Gary Coleman." Andrews-sensei said.

"Demyx." Roxas, Axel and Riku said as one.

"Why me?" Demyx protested.

"Because you act like him." Sakura, one of their classmates, replied.

"Fine." Demyx scowled.

"Ok then." Andrews-sensei said. "We'll only be doing some of the songs. Let's start with _It Sucks to be me._ Riku, whenever you're ready."

Riku sighed and asked, "Do I have to sing?"

"Yes, you do."

Scowling, Riku started.

"_What do you do with a BA in English? What is my life going to be? 4 years of college and plenty of knowledge have earned me this useless degree. I can't pay the bills yet 'cause I have no skills yet. The world is a big scary place. But somehow I can't shake the feeling I might make a difference to the human race._"

Looking very relieved that his part was over, Riku looked at Kairi, who was starting her lines.

"_Morning, Brian!"_

"_Hi, Kate Monster."_

"_How's life?" _

"_Disappointing."_

"_What's the matter?"_

"_The catering company laid me off." _Riku looked at his paper in a confused manner when he read 'catering company', but didn't say anything about it.

"_I'm sorry."_

"_Me too! I mean, look at me! I'm 10 years out of college and I always thought…"_

"_What?"_

"_No, it sounds stupid."_

"_Come on!"_

Kairi was really getting into her role. She was using the right tone of voice and emphasising the right words.

"When I was little, I thought I would be…" 

"_What?"_

"_A big comedian on late night TV."_

"_No…" _came Kairi's playful laugh.

"_But now I'm 32 and as you can see I'm not."_

"_Nope."_

"_Oh well."_

"_Uh-uh."_

"_It sucks to be me."_

"_No…"_

"_It sucks to be me."_

"_No!" _

"_It sucks to be broke and unemployed and turning 33. It sucks to be me."_

Riku was getting into his role too. He had forgotten about not liking to speak in front of other people and was having a fun time with the play.

"You think your life sucks?" 

"_I think so!"_

"_Your problems aren't so bad. I'm kinda pretty. And pretty damn smart."_

"_You are!"_

"_Thanks! I like romantic things like music and art. And, as you know, I have a gigantic heart! So why don't I have a boyfriend! FUCK! It sucks to be me!"_

"_Me too!" _

"_It sucks to be me!"_

"_It sucks to be me! It sucks to be Brian."_

"_And Kate." _

"_To not have a job!"_

"_To not have a date. It sucks to be me."_

Roxas and Axel, realizing that it was their turn to enter, started arguing over the most random thing: who was going to be playing the playstation.

"_Hey Rod, Nicky? Could you settle something for us? Do you have a second?"_

"_Certainly."_

"_Who's life sucks more? Brian's or mine?"_

Roxas and Axel looked at each other, wondering what was so difficult about this.

"_Ours!"_

"_We live together."_

"_As close as people can get."_

"_We've been the best of buddies."_

"_Ever since the day we met._

"_So he knows lots of ways to make me really upset! Oh every day is an aggravation!"_

Axel looked at Roxas in mock annoyance and plunged ahead.

"Come on! That's an exaggeration!" 

"_You leave your clothes out. You put your feet on my chair."_

"_Oh yeah? You do such anal things like ironing your underwear."_

"_You make that very small apartment we share a hell!"_ Roxas pretended to yell at Axel.

"_So do you! That's why I'm in hell too!"_

"_It sucks to be me!"_

"_Is there anybody here it doesn't suck to be? It sucks to be me."_

Larxene scowled, realizing that it was her time to start singing.

"_Why you all so happy?"_

"_Because our lives suck!"_

"_Your lives suck?" _Larxene raised her eyebrows. "_I hearing you correctly? Ha! I coming to this country for opportunities. Try to work in Korean deli, but I am Japanese. But with hard work, I earn two Master's Degrees in social. But now I a therapist. But I have no clients. And I have an unemployed fiancée. And we have lots of bills to pay!" _Larxene signed before continuing. _"It suck to be me. It suck to be me. I say it sucka sucka sucka sucka sucka sucka sucka sucka sucka sucka sucka sucka suck! It suck to be me!" _

Sora, realizing that he was on, started his line.

"_Excuse me. Sorry to bother you, but I'm looking for a place to live."_

"_Why you looking all the way out here?"_

"_Well, I started out in Avenue A, but so far, everything's out of my price range. But this place looks a lot cheaper. And oh look! A 'for rent' sign!"_

"_You'll need to talk to the superintendent. Let me get him for you."_

"_Thanks!"_

"_YO! GARY!"_

Everyone jumped about a mile in their seats, not expecting Riku to yell so loudly. Demyx had long since fallen asleep and Axel had to wake him up.

"_I'm coming, I'm coming."_

"_Oh my god! It's Gary Coleman!" _

"_Yes, I am." _Demyx was not looking too pleased with singing in front of the class, but saw that he had to do it anyway.

"_I'm Gary Coleman from TV's Different Strokes. I made a lot of money that got stolen by my folks! Now I'm broke and I'm the butt of everyone's jokes! But I'm here. The superintendent on Avenue Q."_

"_It sucks to be you." _

"_You win."_

"_It sucks to be you." _

"_I feel better now."_

"_Try having people stopping you to ask you 'Whatchu talkin' 'bout, Willis?' It gets old." _Demyx looked genuinely annoyed, but matched Gary Coleman's voice perfectly.

"_It sucks to be you…on Avenue Q!_

"_Sucks to be me!" _

"_On Avenue Q."_

"_Sucks to be you."_

"_On Avenue Q."_

"_Sucks to be us, but not when we're together. We're together here on Avenue Q. We live on Avenue Q. Our friends do too. Till our dreams come true! We live on Avenue Q."_

"_This is real life."_

"_We live on Avenue Q…"_

"_You're gonna love it."_

"_We live on Avenue Q…"_

"_Here's your keys!"_

"_Welcome to Avenue Q!"_

And with that, the song was over. Demyx was trying to fall back asleep again, but before he could Roxas smacked him in the back of the head with a book.

"Let's move on to _If you were gay. _Roxas and Axel, it's all you." Andrews-sensei said.

"In other words, no pressure." Riku grinned.

"I'd actually like you guys to stand up front and act out this bit." Andrews-sensei said. "It's very amusing to watch this."

Axel and Roxas got up out of their chairs and walked to the front of the classroom. Roxas scowled, but started.

"_Ah. An afternoon alone with my favourite book. Broadway musicals of the 1940's. No roommate to bother me. How can it get any better than this?"_

Axel slammed his hand on a nearby desk to show that a door was closing.

"_Oh, hi Rod!"_

"_Hi, Nicky."_

"_Hey Rod? You'll never guess what happened to me on the subway this morning. This guy was smiling at me and talkin' to me." _

"_That's very interesting." _Roxas said, smiling.

"_He was being real friendly! And I think he was coming on to me!" _Axel was grinning from ear to ear, obviously loving the moment. _"I think he might have thought I was gay!"_

"_So why are you telling me this? Why should I care? I don't care. Whatcha have for lunch today?"_

"_You don't have to get all defensive." _

"_I'M NOT GETTING DEFENSIVE!" _Roxas yelled, making Axel jump a foot back.

Axel laughed and said, "_I didn't mean anything by it, Rod! I- I just think it's something we should be able to talk about."_

"_But I don't want to talk about it, Nicky. This conversation is over."_

"_Yeah but Rod…"_

"_OVER!"_

Axel paused for a second and said, "_Well, ok! But just so you know. If you were gay, that would be ok. I mean cause hey, I'd like you anyway." _

Roxas scowled in protest, but Axel sang on.

"_Because, you see, if it were me, I would feel free to say that I was gay. But I'm not gay."_

"_Nicky, please. I am trying to read." _Roxas hesitated for a second before saying, "_What?"_

"_If you were queer…"_

"_Nicky…"_

"_I'd still be here…"_

"_Nicky, I am trying to read this book."_

"_Year after year…"_

"_Nicky!" _

"_Because you're dear to me."_

Roxas shook his head in annoyance.

"_And I know that you…"_

"_What?"_

"_Would accept me too!"_

"_I would?" _Roxas looked at his friend in surprise.

Axel smiled and said _"If I told you today, 'Hey! Guess what? I'm gay!' But I'm not gay. I'm happy, just being with you…"_

"_Ten button shoes, pal Joey."_

"_So what should it matter to me what you do in bed with guys?"_

Roxas looked horrified and said, _"Nicky, that is gross!"_

"_No it's not! If you were gay…"_

"_Augh!"_

"_I'd shout hurrah!"_

"_I am not listening." _Roxas said, though he was trying very hard not to laugh. Axel was so funny to watch.

"_And here I'd stay."_

"_La la la la la la!"_

"_But I wouldn't get in your way."_

"_AUGH!"_

At this point, Roxas began to chase Axel around the room.

"_You can count on me to always be beside you every day to tell you it's ok. You were just born that way. And as they say, it's in your DNA! You're gay!"_

"_I AM NOT GAY!"_

"_If you were gay!" _Axel finished, smiling.

"Great job, you two." Andrews-sensei said. "We have enough time to start _Schadenfreude, _so Demyx and Axel, up front."

Demyx scowled, but walked up to the front of the room.

"_Right now, you are down and out. And feeling really crappy."_

"_I'll say." _Axel put on a look of concern as Roxas made his way to his seat.

"_And when I see how sad you are, it sorta makes me…happy!"_

"_Happy?" _Axel looked at Demyx in shocked confusion.

"_Sorry Nicky! Human nature. Nothing I can do. It's Schadenfreude. Makin' me feel glad that I'm not you."_

"_That's not very nice, Gary."_ Axel said as Demyx started laughing.

"_I didn't say it was nice. But everybody does it! Didcha ever clap when a waitress falls and drops a tray of glasses?"_

"_Yeah…"_

"_And ain't it fun to watch figure skaters fallin' on their asses?"_

"_Sure!"_

"_Don'tcha feel all warm and cozy watching people out in the rain?"_

"_You bet!" _

"_That's Schadenfreude. People taking pleasure in your pain._

"_Hmm. Schadenfreude, eh?" _Axel pretended to look confused. "_What's that? Some kind of Nazi word?"_

"_Yup! It's German for 'Happiness at the misfortune of others'."_

"_Happiness at the misfortune of others." _Axel repeated. _"That __is __German! Watching a vegetarian being told she just ate chicken."_

"_Or watching a frat boy realize just what he put his dick in!" _Demyx laughed at the last part.

"_Being on an elevator when somebody shouts 'Hold the door!"_

"_Oh yeah…NO!" _

The whole class jumped when Axel and Demyx yelled 'no', but realized that it was part of the act.

"_Schadenfreude. Fuck you lady! That's what stairs are for!"_

"_Ooh! How about straight A students getting Bs?"_

"_Exes getting STDs."_

"_Waking doormen from their naps." _

"_Watching tourists reading maps."_

"_Football players getting tackled._

"_CEOs getting shackled._

"_Watching actors never reach…"_

"_The ending of their Oscar speech!"_

"_Schadenfreude, Schadenfreude. Schadenfreude, Schadenfreude."_

"_The world needs people like you and me who've been knocked around by fate." _Demyx looked like he was enjoying the act now. _"Cause when people see us, they don't wanna be us. And that makes them feel great."_

"_Sure! We provide a vital service to society. You and me!"_

"_Schadenfreude. Makin' the world a better place…makin' the world a better place…makin' the world a better place to be!"_

"_S-C-H-A-D-E-N-F-R-E-U-D-E!" _Demyx finished enthusiastically.

"Nice job, you two." Andrews-sensei said as Axel and Demyx returned to their seats. "Now, for homework, answer the questions in the first section of the script. You are all dismissed once the bell rings."

"Nice job, Axel." Roxas said, as they left the room a few minutes later.

"You did great too." Axel said, punching Roxas in the shoulder playfully.

But Roxas couldn't help but feel differently about Axel. But what was it?

**it took me 3 hours to write this. I'll get Carpal Tunnel before I know it. Review please! no fmaling, or I'll flame you back.**

**Next chapter: What songs are sung next?**


	6. Avenue Q part 2

**Disclaimer: I don't own Avenue Q or Kingdom Hearts. I would love to, but I don't.**

**It's Mika-chan! I had absolutly no idea how to spell Hausselhouff, i don't think that's spelled right...i'm not looking it up and fixing it. I find it sad that no one has reviewed for Zephyr yet. It's not that hard to type a few simple words, ya know! Let the deadly tale continue!**

"What songs are we doing today?"

Upon walking into their English classroom, Roxas and Axel saw that the scripts for Avenue Q were still on the desks, which meant that they were still performing. In a sense.

"I dunno." Axel shrugged. "Your guess is as good as mine."

Once class started, Andrews-sensei said, "I can tell you that we are still working on Avenue Q. There will be a quiz on the first act tomorrow, so you'd better be prepared."

"When was this decided?" Demyx demanded.

"Yesterday while you were asleep." Riku said.

"Are we going to be continuing today?" Kairi asked.

"Yes we are." Andrews-sensei said. "We will be starting with _Everyone's a Little Bit Racist. _This involves pretty much everyone except Rod and Nicky."

"We don't get to talk at all." Axel said, disappointed.

"Whenever you're ready, Sora."

Sora sighed and began.

"_Say, Kate? Can I ask you a question?"_

"_Sure."_

"_Well, you know Trekkie Monster upstairs?"_

"_Uh-huh."_

"_Well, he's Trekkie Monster and you're Kate Monster."_

"_Right…"_

"_You're both Monsters."_

"_Yeah."_

"_Are you two related?"_

Kairi pretended to look shocked at this when she said, "_Princeton, I'm surprised at you! I find that racist."_

"_I'm sorry! I was just asking!"_

"_Well, it's a touchy subject! No, not all Monsters are related. What are you trying to say, huh? That we all look the same to you?"_

"_No not at all! I'm sorry, I guess that __was __a little bit racist."_

"_I should say so. You should be much more careful when you're talking about the sensitive subject of race."_

Sora pretended to look annoyed at this remark.

"_Well look who's talking!"_

"_What do you mean?"_

"_What about that special Monster school you told me about?"_

"_What about it?"_

"_Well, could someone like me go there?"_

"_No! We don't want people like you…"_

"_Haha! You see? You're a little bit racist."_

"_Well, you're a little bit too!" _

"_I guess we're both a little bit racist." _

"_Admitting it is not an easy thing to do."_

"_But I guess it's true." _Sora shrugged.

"_Between me and you, I think everyone's a little bit racist sometimes. Doesn't mean we go around committing hate crimes. Look around and you will find no one's really colour-blind. Maybe it's a fact we all should face. Everyone makes judgements based on race."_

"_Now not big judgements like who to hire or who to buy a newspaper from." _Sora said like he was talking to a small child.

"_No!"_

"_No, just little judgements. Like thinking that Mexican busboys should learn to speak goddamn English!"_

"_Right!" _

"_Everyone's a little bit racist today. So everyone's a little bit racist, ok. Ethnic jokes might be uncouth, but you laugh because they're based on truth. Don't take them as personal attacks. Everyone enjoys them, so relax."_

"_All right. Stop me if you've heard this one!"_

"_Ok!" _

"_There's a plane going down…"_

"_mmhmm." _

"_There's only one parachute…"_

"_hmmm…"_

"_And there's a Rabbi, a priest…"_

"_And a black guy!" _Kairi exclaimed.

"_Yeah!"_

"_Whatchu talkin' 'bout, Kate?" _Demyx demanded, coming into the picture.

"_Uh…"_

"_You were tellin' a black joke!"_

"_Well, sure Gary. But lots of people tell black jokes?"_

"_I don't!"_

"_Well of course you don't. You're black! But I bet you tell Pollack jokes, right?"_

"_Sure I do! Those stupid Pollacks!"_

"_Now don't you think __that's __a little racist?"_

Demyx stopped laughing.

"_Well, damn. I guess you're right!"_

"_You're a little bit racist."_

"_Well you're a little bit too!"_

"_We're all a little bit racist."_

"_I think that I would have to agree with you."_

"_We're glad you do."_

"_It's sad but true. Everyone's a little bit racist. All right."_

"_All right."_

"_All right."_

"_All right! Bigotry has never been exclusively white."_

"_If we all could just admit that we are racist a little bit. Even though we all know that it's wrong. Maybe it would help us get along."_

"_Oh Christ do I feel good!"_

"_Now there was a fine upstanding black man!"_

Sora looked at Demyx in confusion.

"_Who?"_

"_Jesus Christ."_

"_But Gary, Jesus was white?"_

"_No, Jesus was black."_

"_No, Jesus was white."_

"_No, I'm pretty sure Jesus was black!"_

"_Guys! Jesus was Jewish!"_

"_Hey guys!" _Riku said, interrupting the laughter. _"What are you laughing about?"_

"_Racism!"_

"_Cool!"_

"_Brian!" _Larxene yelled. _"Come back here! You take out lecycelabers!"_

"_What's that mean?"_

"_Ummm… recyclables."_

Sora, Riku and Demyx burst out laughing, which caused Riku to yell, _"Hey! Don't laugh at her! How many languages do __you __speak?"_

"_Oh, come off it Brian!"_ Kairi smiled._ "Everyone's a little bit racist!"_

"_I'm not!"_

"_Oh no?"_

"_Nope."_

"_Ha!"_

"_How many Oriental wives have you got?" _

"_What? Brian!" _Larxene could really yell when she wanted to.

"_Brian, buddy, where ya been? The term is Asian American."_

"_I know you are no intending to be, but calling me Orienter…offensive to me."_

"_I'm sorry, honey! I love you!"_

"_And I love you."_

"_But, you're racist, too." _

"_Yeah, I know. The Jews have all the money and the whites have all the power. And I'm always in taxi cab with driver who no shower."_

"_Me too."_

"_Me too!"_

"_I can't even get a taxi!"_

"_Everyone's a little bit racist, it's true. But everyone is just about as racist as you. If we all could just admit that we are racist a little bit. And everyone stop being so PC…maybe we could live in harmony."_

"_Everyone's a rittle bit laciest!"_

Larxene looked like she was about to murder Demyx for making her act out Christmas Eve.

"Ok! For this next part, I need someone to be Trekkie Monster." Andrews-sensei said.

"I nominate Vexen." Demyx said.

"I am not doing this, Demyx." Vexen said threateningly.

"We need a Trekkie, Vex!" Demyx whined.

"If you'll shut up, fine." Vexen said. "You're so annoying when you whine."

"Are you doing it, Vexen?" Andrews-sensei asked.

"Fine." Vexen didn't look happy, but would have to do it anyway.

"Are we doing _The Internet is for Porn_?" Axel asked.

"Yep." Andrews-sensei said.

"Yes!" Sora jumped up and down.

"Ready, Kairi?" Andrews-sensei asked Kairi, who was starting.

Kairi nodded and began.

"_Finally! I get to teach a whole lesson all by myself! And I'm gonna teach something relevant. Something modern. The Internet! The Internet is really really great."_

"_For porn." _Vexen said unenthusiastically.

"_I've got a fast connection, so I don't have to wait._

"_For porn."_

"_There's always some new site…"_

"_For porn."_

"_I browse all day and night…" _

"_For porn."_

"_It's like I'm surfing at the speed of light."_

"_For porn!"_

"_Trekkie!"_

"_The Internet is for porn!"_

"_Trekkie!"_

"_The Internet is for porn!"_

"_What are you doing?"_

"_Why you think the Net was born? Porn, porn, porn!"_

Kairi glared at Vexen and said, _"Trekkie…"_

"_Oh! Hello Kate Monster!"_

"_You are ruining my song!"_

"_Oh, me sorry. Me no mean to!"_

"_Well, if you wouldn't mind being quiet for a minute so I can finish?"  
"Okey-dokey!"_

"_Good! I'm glad we have this new technology."_

"_For porn."_

"_Which gives us untold opportunity."_

"_For porn! Oops! Sorry…"_

"_And from your own desktop."_

"_For…"_

"_You can research, browse and shop." _

Kairi waited a few seconds before saying, _"Until you've had enough and you're ready to stop!"_

"_For porn!"_

"_Trekkie!"_

"_The Internet is for porn."_

"_No…"_

"_The Internet is for porn."_

"_Trekkie…"_

"_Me up all night hugging me horn to porn, porn, porn!"_

Kairi looked revolted as she said, _"That's gross! You're a pervert!"_

"_Ah, sticks and stones, Kate Monster."_

"_No, really. You're a pervert. Normal people don't sit at home and look at porn on the Internet."_

Vexen looked at Kairi with a questioning look in his eyes.

"_What?"_

"_You have no idea. Ready normal people?"_

"_Ready."_

"_Ready!"_

"_Ready."_

"_Let me hear it!"_

"_The Internet is for porn."_

"_Sorry Kate!"_

"_The Internet is for porn."_

"_I masturbate."_

"_All these guys unzip their flies for porn, porn, porn."_

"_Hold on a second!"_

Vexen sighed and looked at Kairi with an expression of great annoyance.

"_Now I happen to know for a fact that you, Rod, check your portfolio and trade stocks online."_

"_That's correct." _Roxas said with a smile.

"_And Brian, you buy things on _

"_Sure." _Riku said innocently.

"_And Gary, you keep selling your possessions on Ebay."_

"_Yes, I do!" _Demyx said proudly.

"_And Princeton, you sent me that sweet online birthday card."_

"_True._" Sora smiled.

"_Ah, but Kate?_" Vexen challenged. _"What you think he do after, hmm?"_

"_Ewwwww!" _Kairi shrieked as she realized what Vexen meant.

"_The Internet is for porn."_

"_Gross!"_

"_The Internet is for porn."_

"_I hate porn."_

"_Grab your dick and double click for porn, porn, porn."_

"_I hate men. I'm leaving!_" Kairi announced. _"I hate the Internet!"_

"_The Internet is for, Internet is for, Internet is for porn!"_

"That was interesting…" Axel said.

"What are we doing now?" Demyx asked.

"_Fantasies come true._" Andrews-sensei said.

"At least _you _get to talk a lot in this one." Axel said to Roxas. "I'm supposed to be asleep."

"Can I start now?" Roxas asked.

"Yep."

Roxas waited for the room to get quieter before starting.

"_It sure can get lonely at night. Nicky, you awake?"_

"_Is that a unicorn?" _Axel said, sounding very much like he was dreaming.

"_Great. He's talking in his sleep again." _Roxas rolled his eyes.

"_No, I'll wear the purple shoes, but who painted the kitten?" _

Fighting a mad desire to laugh at Axel, Roxas said, "_Maybe I should just shake him!"_

"_I love you, Rod."_

Roxas hesitated before saying, _"What did you say?"_

"_I love your little laugh."_

"_Nicky? Are you awake?"_

"_Take off your shirt." _Axel said, grinning from ear to ear.

Roxas gasped and said, _"Oh Nicholas! Have you been shy all this time? Have we been hiding from each other? I wonder…all those nights I lay in bed. Thoughts of you running through my head."_

"_I know! Put my earmuffs on the cookie_." Axel laughed at his lines.

"_But I never thought the things in my head could really happen in my bed."_

"_You look like David Hausselhauff." _

"_All those years I missed the signs. Couldn't read between the lines. Who have thought I would see the day where I'd hear you say what I heard you say? And now I find what was always in my mind was in your mind too. Who knew? Fantasies come true. And now I see that what I've always dreamed of was meant to be. You and me. Me and you. Fantasies come true."_

Then there were a few seconds of music that reminded Roxas of movies. It was the kind of music that you hear when people are running across a beach to meet each other for the first time in years.

"_You and me lived in fantasy. But soon, we'll be a reality."_

Then the scene was switched to Princeton and Kate.

"_Kate, that was amazing."_

"_You're amazing."_

"_I want you to have this. It's a penny I carry around with me for good luck. It's from the year I was born. See? Who knows…maybe it'll bring you good luck. It did for me. I found you. I want you to know the time that we've spent…how great it's been. How much it's meant."_

"_Gosh, I don't know what to say. I'm really glad you feel that way. 'Cause I'm afraid that I like you more than I've ever liked any guy before."_

Than the two scenes overlapped.

"_Cause now…"_

"_Cause now…"_

"_My love…"_

"_My love… I'm getting what I've always been dreaming of."_

"_So are you…"_

"_Oh baby fantasies come true."_

"_And now…"_

"_I swear that when you want me, I'm gonna be right there."_

"_To care…"_

"_To care for you. That's what I'm gonna do." _

"_And make your fantasies…"_

"_Fantasies come true."_

And Roxas was left alone, singing the last sung line.

"_Fantasies come true."_

"_Hey Rod! Buddy, you're talking in your sleep!" _Axel smiled at the boy next to him.

"_I thought you were talking in __your __sleep."_

"_No, I just came to bed. You're dreaming is all."_

"_Oh…"_

"_Sounded like a nice dream, though._

"_Yes, it was a nice dream._

"_Good night."_

"_Good night, Nicky."_

"Well, that's it for today." Andrews-sensei said. "Don't forget to study for the quiz tomorrow."

As Roxas left English, he felt like he was coming a little closer to understanding his feelings for Axel. When would he understand them completely?

**This chapter only took an hour and a half to write. No flaming, or I'll flame you back.**

**Next chapter: what's up with Roxas?**


	7. Of Boring days

**Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts. Do you think they'd let me? Yes? No?**

**It's Mika-chan! Sorry for the long wait. I got Final Fantasy VII for Christmas and have been playing it like mad. I was going to write some on New Years, but I got sick...this is kind of a filler, but it's important in one fact. Let the deadly tale continue!**

A few weeks later, Roxas woke up on a Saturday, wondering what he would do with his day. The blonde had nothing planned, though he knew Sora was going to Riku's house to watch some movies. He decided to think of what to do after breakfast. After dressing, Roxas went down to the kitchen for some breakfast to find Sora at the island with a bowl of cereal in front of him.

"It's about time you wake up." Sora said as his twin entered the room.

"What time is it?" Roxas asked.

"Almost 10."

"Seriously?" Roxas was surprised.

Sora nodded.

"When are you going to Riku's?" Roxas asked as he got a waffle out of the freezer and stuck it in the toaster oven.

"Around 2." Sora responded.

"What are you guys gonna watch?" Roxas asked. "Maybe I'll come along."

"Nope." Sora shook his head, eating a spoonful of cereal.

"Why not?" Roxas asked, annoyed.

"It's going to be me and Riku." Sora smiled.

"So it's a date?" Roxas assumed, leaning against the counter to wait for his waffle.

Sora nodded.

"How are things between you and Axel?" he asked. "You two seem different around each other."

"What do you mean?" Roxas frowned.

"Well, you don't act the same around Axel that you do around Demyx or Riku." Sora began. "I don't really know how to explain it…you two haven't gotten into a fight, have you?"

"Of course not." Roxas said.

"I didn't think so." Sora said. "Axel isn't acting like he does when he's been in a fight."

"When have you seen him in a fight?" Roxas asked, retrieving his waffle from the toaster and joining his twin at the island.

"He got into a yelling match with Zexion." Sora explained. "You could almost see the fire in his eyes."

"That bad, huh?" Roxas asked.

"Yep." Sora said. He put his dirty bowl and spoon in the sink and said, "I'm heading over to Demyx's for some DDR."

"Have fun." Roxas said, mouth full of waffle.

"What are you gonna do today?" Sora asked.

"I'll call Axel and see what he's doing." Roxas said.

"All right, then." Sora said.

He left through the back door. After finishing his waffle, Roxas put his dirty dishes in the sink and retreated to his room. He logged on to his laptop and went to check his e-mail. He had 2 messages from Axel. He selected the message that was sent first.

_Here's the song that I was telling you about in Algebra yesterday. I know you don't really like Three Days Grace, but I hope you like the song. Axel._

Attached to the message was a song that was titled _Over and Over._ Roxas knew that Sora listened to some Three Days Grace, but hadn't heard of the song before. After saving the music file to the file dedicated to music, Roxas went to the next message.

_I'm not planning on doing anything today. Wanna hang out? Axel._

Sora typed his reply and waited for Axel's reply. After watching the music video for _Obscure_ by Dir en Grey, Roxas' IM came up with a message from Axel.

_What did you have in mind?_

Roxas typed his response.

_I dunno. Sora's at Riku's today. Do you want to come over here?_

After another few minutes, another message came up.

_It's fine with me. I don't think Mom is going to be home for a little while. Is it ok if I come over to your place?_

Roxas didn't see a problem with it. His parents weren't home, but he was sure that they wouldn't mind. It wasn't like he was bringing Demyx home.

_What time are you coming over?_

After waiting for a few minutes, Axel's response came back.

_I'll be around sometime after lunch. I have to let Mom know I'm going over._

Roxas typed his response.

_Ok. See ya then._

* * *

Sora sat down on the carpet in Riku's room, watching Riku dance to _Butterfly_. Since Riku didn't have 2 DDR mats, only one person could dance at a time. So whenever someone wanted to have a dance-off, one person had to dance, then next person would dance.

"Hey, Riku?"

"Hmm?"

"Have you noticed something going on between Roxas and Axel?" the blonde asked, watching Riku's footing on the dance mat.

"They've been acting differently, haven't they?" Riku asked, not taking his eyes off of the screen.

"Exactly." Sora said.

"What about it?" Riku wanted to know.

"I asked Roxas if he'd gotten into a fight with Axel, but he said no." Sora explained. "I think there's something going on between them."

"You know what I think?" Riku asked.

"What?"

"I think they like each other." Riku said, finishing the song.

"You think so?" Sora questioned.

"Roxas is acting kinda like you did before we started going out. You know, when you liked me, but you didn't want to admit it." Riku said. "He never did that before Axel moved here, did he?"

"I don't think so." Sora answered.

"And whenever Axel accidentally touches Roxas, he flinches a little." Riku said, song ending.

"And he looks kinda nervous for a little while afterwards." Sora said, more to himself. "You might be right, Riku. Do you think they know it yet?"

"Maybe, maybe not." Riku shrugged, stepping off the mat so Sora could take his turn. "We'll find out eventually. I mean, Roxas is your brother, so we'll know."

* * *

Roxas was in his room, watching the live-action _Death Note _movie on his laptop when he heard the doorbell ring downstairs. He paused the movie, went downstairs and opened the front door to find Axel standing on the fount porch.

"Hey." Roxas said, standing back so Axel could come inside. "What's up?"

"I'm bored out of my mind." Axel said.

"So am I." Roxas said. "I was watching _Death Note _upstairs."

"Anime or movie?" Axel asked.

"Movie." Roxas said. "So…what do you want to do?"

"I was hoping you had an idea." Axel grinned sheepishly.

"I don't know." Roxas shrugged.

"You haven't started that essay for Psychology, have you?" Axel asked as the two boys walked up the steps to Roxas' room.

"I finished it yesterday." Roxas replied.

"Seriously?" Axel looked at Roxas incredulously.

"Um, yeah." Roxas looked uncertainly at Axel. "Let me guess…you haven't even started."

"Got that right." Axel said. "What's it on?"

"You don't even know what the essay is _about_?" Roxas raised his eyebrows.

"Nope." Axel said.

Roxas opened the door to his room and said, "We have to research a mental illness and describe past treatments."

"What did you do yours on?" the redhead wanted to know.

"Schizophrenia." Roxas replied.

"I guess I'll do mine on PTSD." Axel said. "That seems the easiest."

"I guess so." Roxas turned off his laptop and said, "So what are we gonna do today?"

"I haven't the faintest idea." Axel grinned.

Roxas rolled his eyes.

"We could watch a movie." He suggested.

"What do you have?" Axel asked.

"All the movies are in Sora's room." Roxas said, walking out of his room.

Walking into Sora's room, Axel and Roxas browsed through the various movies in Sora's DVD case. After searching the movies, Axel said, "I've seen a lot of these already."

"Ok then, let's do something else." Roxas said. "We can start on that essay for English."

"The one on that book?" Axel asked.

"No, the one on _The Crucible._" Roxas corrected him.

"I didn't think we were doing an essay on that." Axel frowned.

"Yep." Roxas said.

"The one based on the movie?" Axel asked.

"No, the play." Roxas rolled his blue eyes to the ceiling.

"How am I going to do my essay here?" Axel wondered.

"You can use the computer downstairs." Roxas said. "I'll bring my laptop down."

The two left Sora's room and went back to Roxas' room so he could get his laptop. Axel followed Roxas to the living room where the computer was.

"I need to log you on." Roxas said.

"Why?" Axel frowned.

"I have my setting password protected." Roxas explained.

"Why?" Axel repeated.

"I like my privacy." Roxas said with a smile.

After typing in his password, Roxas turned on his laptop and logged on.

"Let me guess," Axel said. "You have your laptop password protected?"

"Definitely." Roxas said.

"Can I use your Internet?" Axel asked.

"I don't see how you can do this essay without the Internet." Roxas said.

Roxas opened a new Word document and started his essay.

"What does it have to be about?" Axel asked.

"Comparing the play to the actual trials." Roxas said, typing away.

"You don't happen to know anything about the trials, do you?" Axel asked hopefully.

"A lot, actually." Roxas said. "Hold on a second."

He left the living room, leaving a very confused Axel behind. A few minutes later, the blonde returned with an enormous book on the Salem Witch Trials.

"Geez, Roxas!" Axel exclaimed when he saw the book.

"Everything you need to know on the trials." Roxas said, handing the book to Axel and returning to his laptop.

"What about you?" Axel asked, "Will you need it?"

"I've read the book so many times I've lost count." Roxas shrugged.

"Wow." Axel said softly.

"Yeah, I know." Roxas laughed. "Besides, I think you could use it more than me."

"How long does it have to be?" Axel asked, browsing the book.

"At least 5 paragraphs." Roxas replied. "With pictures."

"Photobucket." Axel said immediately.

"I thought you'd say that." Roxas said.

"Pictures of what?" Axel asked.

"Pictures of the trials. Stuff like that." Roxas answered.

They worked on their essays, consulting each other for confirmation on various facts. After about an hour and a half, the essays were finished.

"Do you mind if I print mine out here?" Axel asked.

"Sure." Roxas said. "I'll print mine out upstairs."

"You have a printer in your room?" Axel asked as the printer started up.

"It's ancient." Roxas said. "Actually, it prints faster than this one."

"Seriously?" Axel asked.

"Weird, isn't it?" Roxas smiled.

After Axel printed his essay, he said, "I guess I should head home. I told Mom I'd be back before 4."

"What time is it now?" Roxas asked.

"3:45." Axel said.

"I didn't realize that it was this late." Roxas said.

"Thanks for letting me use your computer and printer." Axel said, getting up from the computer.

"It's no problem." Roxas said. "At least we found something to do."

Axel left, essay in hand, leaving Roxas alone. The blonde brought his essay up to his room and realized that he had to feed Edward and Dante, he two Anoles. After feeding his reptiles, Roxas lay down on his bed, wondering if the feelings he felt for Axel were real or not.

**Remember the song that Axel sent Roxas. If you know the song, then it should be obvious. if you don't, you'll have to find out!**

**next chapter: blank tapes?**


	8. Mixed CDs

**Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts. **

**It's Mika-chan! This is the second time i'm uploading this. apparently, the last half got cut off. I don't know why no one told me. Well, enjoy!**

"You know what we should do?"

It was lunchtime and everyone was outside. Axel and Roxas had been talking about the new _Halo _game and Riku, Kairi and Sora were talking about movies when Demyx suddenly started talking.

"That was certainly random, Demyx." Roxas said. "What should we do?"

"We should make a collection of mixed cds!" Demyx exclaimed.

"Um…why?" Axel raised his eyebrows.

"So we can get into different types of music!" Demyx explained.

"We all listen to a lot of the same music anyway, Dem." Riku said, biting into his apple.

"But it would be fun!" Demyx said. "We'd make a playlist and burn a cd for each of us."

"Sora, do we even have that many cds?" Roxas asked his twin.

"Dad just got a bunch. I think we should have enough." Sora said, resting his head on Riku's shoulder.

"So are we doing it?" Demyx asked.

"I guess we are." Kairi answered. "But what about the lyrics?"

"What about them?" Axel frowned.

"Your music isn't written by saints, you know." Kairi said.

"We'll keep it fairly clean." Axel assured her. "No songs about people getting shanked in prison yards."

"Ya hear that, Demyx?" Riku looked at Demyx to make sure that he heard Axel. "Keep the music clean."

"No swearing?" Demyx asked. "That takes out everything!"

"I guess swearing is ok." Kairi said.

"But Kairi," Sora added. "Please don't do any soundtrack music."

"What do you mean soundtrack music?" Kairi looked at the blonde.

"No music from musicals and stuff." Sora said.

"I guess I can do that." Kairi said. "You guys do know that I listen to other stuff than soundtracks?"

"Really?" Roxas looked at Kairi in surprise. "I never would've guessed."

"Let's bring them in next Monday." Sora said. "I don't know about you guys, but I have a ton of homework this week."

"Sounds good to me." Axel said, taking a drink of Coke. "Roxas, when is that story due?"

"Tomorrow." Roxas replied.

"Seriously?" Axel hadn't even started his story yet.

"Yeah." Roxas nodded slowly.

"Let me guess…" Kairi assumed. "You haven't even started it yet."

"It's all done in my head." Axel said. "The trouble is getting it down on paper."

* * *

The next day in English, as Axel was frantically finishing his story, Roxas was working on a song. Well, it was a poem at the moment. But the blonde had every intention of making it a song.

_I saw her in the dead of night_

_Walking in the moonlit light._

_I followed her to a secret grave_

_Down a pebble street: the roads unpaved._

_She stopped and knelt at a large oak tree._

_I tried to look, but I couldn't see_

_What exactly she was looking at._

_I heard the call of a raven black._

_I saw her lips move, but could not hear._

_And in her eyes, I saw a tear_

_Come from her eyes and down her face_

_And fall onto her dress of lace._

_The moon above me cast it's light _

_Over to the grave so white._

_I read the name but didn't know_

_What the light was meant to show._

_Her face was sad, I tried to hear_

_The words she spoke that I heard so dear._

"Kinda dreary writing, isn't it?"

Roxas turned around and saw Axel reading over his shoulder.

"Your story's done?" the blonde assumed.

"Just handed it in." Axel said. "Is this extra credit?"

"I'm turning it into a song." Roxas said, flushing slightly.

"Really?" Axel sounded somewhat amused. He took the paper from Roxas and read it over. "What's this bit with the light and the name?"

"I needed something that rhymed." Roxas admitted.

"Is this your first one?" Axel asked, handing the paper back to the blonde.

"I've written others." Roxas shook his head.

"Are they this depressing?" Axel took his seat next to the blonde.

"Kinda sorta maybeish." Roxas shrugged.

"What are we doing today?" Axel asked.

"In class?" Roxas asked in return. "I think we're going to the library for something."

"Sounds like a blast." Axel leaned back in his chair. "I can use the computers."

"I don't want to know what you'd do with them." Roxas said.

"Probably go on Myspace." Axel said with a shrug.

"You have a Myspace?" Roxas looked at the redhead in surprise.

"Of course not." Axel said. "What would I do with it?"

"I dunno." Roxas said. "I've never had one. Sora does, though."

At that time, Andrews-sensei called the class down to the library. Riku, Sora, Demyx and Kairi worked by themselves as usual.

"I don't know why they're always letting us work together." Roxas said. "Sora won't say why."

* * *

"So why are we doing this? No one ever explained what's going on."

Demyx was being loud, as usual. Sora had informed Kairi of his idea about Roxas and Axel. Kairi, then, came up with the idea for the library.

"Sora, do you think we can trust him?" Riku hand his hand through his hair.

"Demyx, if you tell Axel and Roxas what we're up to, I'm going to chop your head off, throw it in a river and burn the rest of your body in the oven." Sora said, sounding fiercer than he intended to.

Demyx looked at Sora in surprise.

"This must be a big secret." Demyx said. "You guys know I can keep major secrets."

"Can you?" Riku and Kairi raised their eyebrows questioningly.

"You know I can!" Demyx said. "It's little secrets I can't keep."

"But you must keep this secret, got it?" Riku told an anxious Demyx.

"Of course." Demyx vowed.

"We think Roxas and Axel like each other." Kairi said.

Demyx stared at her for a second before saying, "You really think so?"

"There's no other way to explain it." Sora said, spinning around in circles in his chair.

"But we don't think that they know it yet." Riku explained.

"How do they not know?" Demyx frowned.

"They know they feel something for the other, but they can't figure out what it is." Sora clarified. "They know that they don't feel the same way around me or Riku, but they don't know what to call that feeling."

"So we're letting them work alone because…." Demyx tried to understand what he was hearing.

"We need to give them time to figure out how they feel for each other." Kairi said.

"But you must not tell them." Riku said.

"I'll probably forget by this afternoon." Demyx said.

"That wouldn't surprise me." Kairi said.

* * *

When Axel got home that day, he decided that he would work on that cd Demyx was talking about. When it came to matters such as these, Axel always seemed to screw something up. But how hard could it be to find some songs, make a playlist out of them, and burn them to a few cds?

Walking up to his room, Axel set his bookbag down on the floor by his bed and turned on his computer. After first checking to make sure he had the required number of cds, the redhead went to his music folder to see what songs he should use. If he was going to burn a bunch of cds, he might as well use as many minutes on them as he could.

Axel wasn't aware of how many albums he had on his computer. Many of them were from bands like Disturbed, Dir en Grey, Three Days Grace and Simple Plan. He went through the albums and selected a song or two from each. He started with _Firefly, Follow, Breakdown, Unknown Soldier _and _Until the End _from Breaking Benjamin. Then he went and added _Paralyzer _from Finger Eleven, _Mushi, Yokan, Disabled Complexes, Grief _and _Hydra _from Dir en Grey, _Walking Disaster _and _March of the Dogs _from Sum 41 and _House of Wolves, Famous Last Words, Mama _and _Disenchanted _from My Chemical Romance.

After going through the rest of his music, Axel added several more songs to the list and burned the required cds. After putting them in cases, the redhead stacked the cds on his dresser and went downstairs to call Roxas about the essay for Psychology.

**I actually wrote the poem by Roxas. I needed something for the story. Enjoy!**

**Next chapter: what is on the cds?**


	9. Of Ravens and Nazis

**Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts. I don't think that would go over so well.**

**It's Mika-chan! I guess you could say this is a filler chapter, but the cds come up later. Trust me on that one. I will be posting a Final Fantasy VII fanfic as soon as I'm done Sasori's Secret. Look for it soon! Let the deadly tale continue!**

Roxas woke up to the sound of Sora's alarm clock in the next room. Sighing, the blonde got out of bed and dressed for school. Sora was at the kitchen table, eating a bowl of cereal.

"You really need to turn down your clock, Sora." Roxas said as he rummaged through the pantry for something edible.

"Maybe you need to turn yours on." Sora suggested.

"Right…" Roxas said. "The one that you threw against the wall?"

"You haven't gotten a new one yet?" Sora asked.

"Nope." Roxas shook his head.

After breakfast, Roxas and Sora left for school. As usual, Sora met up with Riku, while Roxas met up with Axel. Once they met up with Kairi and Demyx at school, they went to English. Today, they would be reading_ The Raven _by Edgar Allan Poe and answering questions based on the poem. Roxas was on the third question, "Why do you think the Raven keeps saying Nevermore?". Sighing, Roxas abandoned the question and leaned back in his chair.

"Not going to finish it?"

Roxas looked over at Axel, who had his emerald green eyes on the poem.

"I'm just confused." Roxas said.

"About what?" Axel asked.

"The last one." Roxas replied.

"I didn't get that one either." Axel answered. "I guess we'll get it from someone else."

"Guess so." Roxas sighed. "What are we gonna do after school?"

"I have no idea." Axel shrugged. "I was going to ask you the same thing."

"Aren't we getting another essay for Psychology?" Roxas asked.

"We are?" Axel looked startled. "On what?"

"We've been talking about personality theories lately, so that would be my guess." Roxas said.

"That's not too bad, I guess." Axel relaxed a little bit. "Sensei gives us too many essays."

"That he does." Roxas nodded in agreement.

After English, Demyx, Roxas and Axel made their way to Algebra 2. Most of the class period was spent taking notes of different quadratic functions. Once the notes were over, Roxas had to wake up Demyx, who had been asleep through most of the notes.

Once Algebra was over, Axel went to Gym with Riku and Sora. This week was volleyball week. Axel had never been very good at volleyball, so he usually ended up hitting Sora or Riku on the back of the head instead of getting the ball over the net. After the 5th time of getting smacked in the head, a very annoyed Riku decided that Axel wouldn't be serving anymore. Axel couldn't complain. After Gym, Axel, Riku and Sora made their way to the cafeteria and joined Roxas, Demyx and Kairi outside at their usual table.

"I hope everyone remembered their cds!" Demyx said happily.

"How could we?" Riku pointed out. "You e-mailed us 50 times reminding us."

"I did?" Demyx pretended not to know anything.

"Feigning innocence doesn't work, Demyx." Axel said as he pulled out his stack of cds and set them in the middle of the table.

"Axel, your cds are green!" Kairi exclaimed.

"Is that a problem?" Axel raised his eyebrows.

"I've never seen green cds before." Kairi said.

"You don't get out much, do you, Kai?" Sora said playfully.

"Shut up, Sora." Kairi said.

"So what's the next big plan, Demyx?" Riku asked once all the cds were handed out.

"I was thinking we could all make a movie." Demyx said.

"A movie on what?" Roxas wasn't sure if he wanted to be in any movie of Demyx's.

"Let's make a battle movie." Sora said. "We could have our own version of _Triumph of the Will_."

"And that is…?" Kairi prompted.

"A Nazi promo." Sora nodded. "We watched it in middle school."

"That might be interesting." Riku said.

"I don't want to do a war movie." Demyx protested. "Just a regular movie."

"A movie on what?" Axel repeated Roxas' previous question.

"We could run around and act like idiots!" Demyx exclaimed.

"Demyx, you do that already." Riku said in a bored voice.

"I'm going to pretend I didn't hear that, Riku." Demyx said.

"Let's hold a court case thing." Kairi suggested. "Axel can be a murderer…"

"Thanks, Kairi." Axel rolled his eyes.

"And someone could be the judge and decide what his sentence is." Kairi suggested.

"But there are too many cop shows like that already." Sora pointed out.

"Then let's do the Nazi thing." Roxas said. "We need something to do."

"Ok…so who wants to be who?" Riku asked.

"I wanna be Himmler." Axel said immediately.

"Kairi can be Hitler's mistress." Demyx said.

"But who's going to be Hitler?" Kairi asked.

"I can be Hitler." Sora said.

"Sora, Hitler was against gay people." Riku pointed out.

"So?" Sora frowned.

"You can't be Hitler if you're gay." Roxas said.

"Then Riku and I can't be Nazis." Sora said.

"One of you can be Rohem." Demyx said. "He was a gay Nazi."

"Call!" Riku yelled.

"Dammit, Riku." Sora said.

"We need a Goering and a Goebbles." Axel said.

"I guess I can be Rommel." Roxas said.

"I'll be Hitler since Sora can't do it." Demyx said.

"So Sora can be either Goering or Goebbles." Axel said with a smiled.

"I guess I'll be Goebbles." Sora said. "Even though Nazis can't be gay…"

"So what is the plot for all this?" Axel wanted to know.

"I was thinking of a discussion about the war." Roxas said.

"But where do I come into play?" Kairi asked.

"Who knows?" Riku shrugged. "I guess you can be Hitler's support person."

"Sounds fun." Kairi rolled her eyes.

"So are we doing it?" Demyx asked.

"Dem, if we've assigned parts, then we're doing it." Sora said.

"But we need to come up with a plotline." Roxas said.

"What about costumes?" Kairi pointed out. "We can't exactly go to the mall and find swastika arm bands."

"I guess we'll just wear the brown uniform things." Axel shrugged. "You can wear whatever since you're Eva Braun."

"Let's have one of the Nazis try to assassinate Hitler." Sora suggested.

"Thanks, Sora." Demyx rolled his eyes.

"Who would do it?" Roxas asked.

"Let's see…Axel, wanna kill Demyx?" Riku asked the redhead.

"More than happy too." Axel grinned.

"Awesome!" Demyx said.

"I guess we'll have some events leading up to it." Kairi said.

"Oh! We could have Axel plotting with Roxas to kill Demyx." Sora said.

"Not bad, Sora." Riku nodded.

"So when are we gonna do this?" Roxas wondered.

"After school." Axel said. "I have a video camera so we can use that."

"Kairi can shoot a lot of the footage." Riku said.

"And what about when I'm not shooting?" Kairi asked.

"I guess Sora or someone else can take your place." Demyx shrugged.

"That leads to the next problem." Axel said. "Where are we going to make this?"

"Axel, your house looks pretty German." Sora said.

"Ok…" Axel wasn't sure whether to take this as a complement or not, so he let it slide.

"So we'll go to Axel's house, make the movie…then what?" Kairi asked.

"Go home, I guess." Demyx shrugged.

"Sounds like a plan to me." Roxas said.

The bell rang, signalling the end of lunch. Roxas and Axel made their way to Psychology, hesitant about making a movie on Nazis.

**My friends and I are going to make a Nazi movie. I think I'm going to be Rommel...**

**next chapter: how does the movie turn out?**


	10. Bring on the Panzers!

**Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts, Adolf Hitler, or the Nazis.**

**It's Mika-chan! I had a blast writing this chapter. It's a Nazi soap opera! For anyone who doesn't know, a Panzer is a German tank. Please excuse my German spelling. I am terrible at it. Let the deadly tale continue!**

"I feel stupid already."

Everyone was at Sora and Roxas' house, getting ready for the movie. Axel was setting up the video camera and trying to rewind the tape.

"Don't feel bad, Axel." Demyx said. "You look stupid, too."

"Do you want me to kill you now?" Axel said through gritted teeth.

"No, not really." Demyx said.

At the suggestion of Riku, Demyx had made swastika armbands for all Nazis. No one looked like a real Nazi: it's impossible nowadays to find a genuine Nazi uniform. So everyone had to improvise. Kairi was the only one who wasn't wearing a Nazi uniform, since, obviously, Eva Braun wasn't a Nazi. Instead, she was wearing a red plaid skirt with a blue dress shirt with black high-heeled shoes.

"Are you almost ready yet, Axel?" Sora said, tapping his foot on the floor.

"I just need to show Kai how to work it." Axel said.

"Roxas, go find a weapon or something." Riku said.

"What kind of weapon?" Roxas asked, pulling at the swastika band that was pinned on his left arm.

"A broom or something." Riku said.

"A broom isn't a weapon, Riku." Demyx said.

"But we can't kill you in reality, now can we?" Riku pointed out.

Roxas went to the kitchen, found a broom, and walked back into the living room.

"Ready, Axel?" Roxas asked.

"If Kairi's ready." Axel said.

"I'm set." Kairi said, eyes fixed on the screen on the side.

"Everyone remember who they are?" Demyx asked.

"Yep yep!" Sora said cheerfully.

"So how are we going to start?" Kairi asked.

"Let's have a conversation between Himmler and Rommel plotting against Hitler." Riku said.

"Sounds good to me." Roxas said. "When should we start?"

"Whenever." Sora said.

Axel shrugged, faced Roxas and said, "How is your plan coming along?"

"Absolutely horrible." Roxas said, pretending to look miserable. "I can't believe I got that idiot Rohem to help me. I should never have trusted him."

"But he's in charge of the SA." Axel reminded Roxas. "He could be useful."

"The only thing that bastard is good for is sitting on his ass and watching movies." Roxas crossed his arms in front of his chest. "I need to concentrate on my troops in North Africa. Can you help with things a little bit? I know you want Hitler dead as much as I do."

"What do you want me to do?" Axel asked.

"Just stick a bomb somewhere where Hitler will be able to find it." Roxas said. "I need to go to a meeting with my Generals. I trust you will do good work?"

"Understood." Axel said.

Roxas and Axel saluted each other and Roxas walked off. Riku walked in with Sora.

"Ah, Goebbles! Rohem." Axel said, trying to sound pleased.

"What are you doing here, Himmler?" Sora asked, "This is the Fuhrer Bunker. You usually aren't here, now are you?"

"Relax, Rohem." Axel said. "I'm here on command from Rommel."

"Rommel?" Riku frowned. "What does he want?"

"He let me in on his plan to assassinate the Fuhrer." Axel said.

Sora and Riku pretended to look shocked at each other.

"I happen to know, Rohem, that you are doing a poor job at it." Axel frowned.

"What would you suggest then?" Sora said.

"Are you in on it too?" Axel asked.

"I was supposed to have a meeting with the Fuhrer today, but he is with Eva this afternoon." Sora said.

"Let me take care of this matter." Axel said. "For I am sure that I can do a much better job than either of you will do."

"And what makes you so sure?" Riku sneered.

"Why do you suppose Hitler put me in charge of the SS?" Axel challenged. "Because he trusts me. Now go about your business and forget I ever talked to you."

Riku and Sora looked hesitantly at each other, but left. Sora took the camera from Kairi, since she was supposed to be with Demyx. Sora focused the camera around the room for a moment, giving Kairi some time to dash upstairs to Roxas' room, which was serving as Hitler's study. After waiting for a minute, Axel went up the stairs, clutching the broom in his hand, with Sora, Roxas and Riku following behind him. Axel opened the door to Roxas' room find Demyx and Kairi looking out Roxas' window. When they heard the door open, both turned around, looking tense. But upon seeing Axel, both seemed to relax.

"What are you doing here, Himmler?" Demyx said, pretending to sound strict.

"I have news of the invasion, mein Fuhrer." Axel said.

"Oh?" Demyx looked at Axel in surprise. "Well? Are the troops holding up?"

"All of the troops have been wiped out, sir." Axel said, pretending to be humble about the fictitious situation. "Every soldier, dead. Even the Generals."

"How could this happen?" Demyx questioned. "I put the best troops on the front!" He looked at Axel and said, "Which beach did they invade?"

"Normandy." Axel said.

And with that, he swung the broom around, hitting Demyx on the head with the bristle part. Demyx fell to the floor, pretending to be dead. Kairi let out a shriek and bent down to check Demyx's vital signs.

"Don't make me kill you too, Frauline." Axel said. "Or should that be Frau?"

Kairi looked at Axel in confusion.

"What do you mean?"

"Don't pretend that you don't know." Roxas said, stepping into the room.

"I don't know what?" Kairi asked.

"You're secretly married to Dönitz." Roxas said smugly.

Kairi gasped.

"How did you find out about that?" she asked.

"It wasn't hard, really." Axel said. "Rommel here found you two coming out of a hotel on 5th Street looking very intimate."

"Tell me, Eva. Does his wife know?" Roxas said.

"And let's not forget Goering." Axel added.

"What about him?" Kairi asked.

"Give it up." Roxas said. "We know you are also having an affair with Goering as well."

"So including the deceased Hitler, that makes 3 men." Axel said.

"All of them are lies!" Kairi shouted.

"Really?" Roxas said, not believing a word Kairi said. "Perhaps you would like to join your late Fuhrer then?"

Roxas struck Kairi on the head with the broom. Kairi fell to the floor next to Demyx. Axel faced Roxas and said, "See? It wasn't that hard."

"Bring on the panzers! Let's see what the Allies can do!" Roxas shouted.

"That was random." Axel said, sensing that the movie was over.

Roxas then turned the broom on Axel and started whacking him over the head.

"Roxas! I'm the one you plotted with, remember?" Axel said, laughing as he tried to get under Roxas' bed.

Kairi and Demyx got up off the floor and looked under the bed, trying to figure out what was going on.

"Nice job." Sora said. "Camera's still rolling."

"Roxas!" Axel screamed. "Give me the broom back!"

"Never!" Roxas yelled in return.

"Riku!" Sora yelled. "They're at it again!"

Axel was chasing Roxas around the room, trying to get the broom back so no harm would come to anyone else.

"Roxas!" Axel yelled. "Come on, Roxas!"

"Seriously, Axel." Roxas said, dodging Kairi. "I'll stop if you stop."

Axel stopped running, so Roxas stopped. Demyx got a hold of the broom and began whacking people with it. It took a while to get the broom back, since Demyx led them on a wild-goose-chase around the neighbourhood including outside. They got some very peculiar looks from the neighbours, since it wasn't everyday you see 6 teenagers, 5 dressed as Nazis, running around trying to get a broom from a Nazi who was determined to hit people over the head with it. Once they reached Sora and Roxas' house again, everyone assembled in the living room.

"Let's make another one!" Demyx exclaimed.

"About what?" Kairi asked.

"Not another Nazi one…" Riku groaned, resting his head on Sora's shoulder.

"No, let's do a witch trial!" Demyx exclaimed. "Kairi would have to be the witch."

"Thanks, Demyx." Kairi scowled.

"Why Kairi?" Axel frowned.

"She's the only girl." Demyx said.

"Is this a 1692 trial?" Roxas asked.

"Yes!" Demyx jumped up and down.

"But who's going to be the afflicted?" Roxas asked.

"You and Axel." Demyx said.

"Us?" Roxas and Axel said as one.

"Why them?" Riku asked.

"Well, there can be another witch." Demyx said. "Sora can be the judge and I can be the defendant."

Roxas looked uncertainly at Axel. He had a bad feeling about this.

**So it's a witch trial next? Sweet Jashin-sama...**

**next chapter: what did Demyx have in mind when he wanted a witch trial?**


	11. Witch Trials?

**Disclaimer: Do I really need to say it?**

**It's Mika-chan! This is a short chapter. I really wanted to update, but i didn't want to write anything with witchcraft...but i did anyway. Enjoy!**

"I think this is worse than the Nazi idea."

Axel was sitting at Roxas and Sora's kitchen table with Roxas. Kairi was sitting in front of the table, pretending to be an accused witch. Sora had taken control of Axel's camera and was now walking around the room getting various shots of the group. Demyx and Riku had to pretend to be afflicted girls, even though they weren't girls.

"I never wanted to be a girl in the first place." Demyx complained.

"But you didn't want to be a judge, either." Roxas pointed out.

"Who the hell wants to be a judge?" Demyx sighed.

"Do we even have a plot line?" Roxas asked in a bored voice.

"I guess not." Sora said from the side of the room.

"Fantastic." Axel rolled his emerald green eyes to the ceiling.

"Is everyone ready?" Sora asked, eager to start the production.

"As ready as we'll ever be." Roxas said, with an uneasy look at Axel.

"Then…action!" Sora said, sounding very much like a movie director.

Axel looked at Kairi and said, "You have been brought to court on the charges of witchcraft. What is your plea?"

"Innocent, of course." Kairi said, looking revolted.

"Are you now?" Roxas said questioningly. "We happen to have proof that you bewitched one of our victims." He indicated Riku and Demyx, who were looking very annoyed.

"Where's the evidence?" Kairi demanded.

"The fact that both of the afflicted had burns and abrasions on their arms for several days." Axel said, leaning back in his chair. "They would not go away with regular medicine."

"Anything could have caused the burns." Kairi pointed out. "Do you have specific proof that it was me?"

"All of the evidence leads to you." Axel said.

"This is ridiculous!" Kairi protested. "You cannot prove that it was me!"

"You're right." Roxas said, "We can't."

"So you admit it." Kairi said triumphantly.

"But we don't need evidence to prove that you haven't been in church for the last few months." Axel said.

Kairi fell silent.

"Do you have a reason?" Roxas said, shifting his blonde hair out of his ocean blue eyes.

"No…"

"Then how can you prove that you haven't been practicing witchcraft?" Axel raised his eyebrows slightly. "If you are not a witch, then what have you been doing every Sunday?"

"I have been home." Kairi said.

"Doing what?" Roxas demanded.

When Kairi didn't answer, Roxas said, "If you cannot prove that you are not a witch, then you will be declared one."

"But I tell you I'm not a witch!" Kairi exclaimed.

"The court has decided that the accused is guilty. The punishment will be death by hanging. The court is adjourned." Roxas said.

Kairi suddenly stood up and said, "I guess my little ploy didn't work!"

"So you _are _a witch?" Axel said, adjusting to the change of events.

"Of course!" Kairi exclaimed. "Did you not find it funny that you didn't even find a Bible in my house?" She stood up and walked around the room. "But I guess I'll have to kill you two, even if I _am _going to die."

Kairi pointed her finger at Axel, who fell out of his chair, squirming on the floor like he was having a seizure. Roxas looked down at the redhead and yelled "Axel!"

Axel stopped squirming and remained very still, green eyes staring straight ahead. Roxas got out of his chair to check the redhead's pulse. When Roxas' cold fingers touched Axel's neck, Axel's lips formed a smile. Roxas smiled a little in response, but when he stood up, the blonde's expression was nothing short of somber.

"I trust that he is dead?" Kairi smiled. "I guess it's your turn."

She pointed her finger at Roxas. The blonde fell to the floor next to Axel, gasping for breath. Axel was now sitting up and laughing silently at Roxas' performance. When he heard Kairi walk over to make sure they were dead, Axel resumed being dead. When Kairi was close enough, Roxas stuck his leg out and tripped her, causing her to crash into Roxas and Axel.

"Are you guys ok?" Sora asked, walking over to the group.

"We're ok." Roxas smiled.

"We didn't get to do anything!" Demyx protested.

"I thought you didn't want to do anything, Demyx?" Riku frowned, running his fingers through his hair.

"But it was my idea in the first place!" Demyx said.

"Give it a rest, Demyx." Roxas rolled his eyes toward the ceiling.

"Are we going to watch the videos?" Kairi wondered.

"I'll e-mail them to everyone." Axel said.

"We can watch it here." Sora said.

"I have to format it first." Axel said. "Ya know, make it fancy."

"Nothing too fancy, ok?" Riku looked at the redhead uncertainly.

"Don't worry, Riku." Axel said. "I won't do anything drastic."

"I'd better get going." Kairi said. "I'm supposed to go shopping with mom later."

"And I have a date with Larxene." Demyx said.

"It's a wonder she goes out with you." Riku said.

"Well, thanks for having me over Sora and Roxas." Kairi said when she reached the front door.

"It's no problem." Roxas said. "It was fun."

"Same for me!" Demyx said as he headed out the back door, leaving Roxas, Sora, Riku and Axel in the living room.

"What now?" Roxas said.

"I'm going to head home." Axel said, running his fingers through his unruly red hair.

"Ok…" Roxas said in a disappointed voice. "I guess I'll see you tomorrow."

"Of course you will." Axel said. "See ya."

Once Axel left, Roxas went up to his room, leaving Sora and Riku alone to watch _Drumline_. He turned on his laptop and waited for it to load up. He had burned Kairi, Demyx, Sora and Riku's cds to his computer. All that was left was Axel's. Sighing, the blonde decided that he'd do that another time. Something else was nagging him in the back of his mind that had nothing to do with Nazis, witches of mixed cds.

**I hope the next chapter will be longer. Review please!**

**Next chapter: there's a new kid in school...wonder who it is...**


	12. Namine

**Disclaimer: I don't own KH. If I did, Axel would still be alive :Sob:**

**It's Mika-chan! This was an interesting chapter to write. I can tell you guys, the next chapter is going to be controversial. I won't give it away now, but it's going to be controversial. Anyway, let the deadly tale continue!**

When Axel woke up the next morning, he wondered why he felt so exhausted. The redhead hadn't fallen asleep until nearly 3 in the morning. Thoughts of Roxas kept him awake. "I hope I have these feelings worked out." Axel ran his fingers through his unruly red hair. "I'm not sure I want to think of him more than a friend." But Axel knew that wasn't true. Some part of him told him that he loved Roxas, but the other half was trying to tell him otherwise. Sighing, Axel brushed his teeth in the bathroom down the hall, after chasing out the cat first. Walking back into his room, the redhead walked over to his radio and scanned the many cds organized alphabetically on the rack. Cds were the one thing Axel kept organized. He decided to listen to _What have you done _by Within Temptation. When the first chorus was starting, someone knocked at the door.

"What?"

The door opened and Roxas stepped in.

"What are you doing here, Rox?" Axel asked, "I'm not late, am I?"

"Don't worry." Roxas said, sitting down on the bed while Axel pulled on a black Marilyn Manson shirt. The blonde stared at the CD player, which was playing at a very loud decibel level and asked, "What are you listening to?"

"Within Temptation." Axel said. "They're on the CD I burned you."

"Burned me?" Roxas frowned.

"The group CD thing." Axel said. "Now I feel like wearing their shirt instead of Manson. Thanks, Roxas."

"No problem." Roxas smiled as Axel took off his Marilyn Manson shirt and pulled on a Within Temptation shirt.

"So why are you here?" Axel asked as he put on his stud bracelet.

"Sora already left with Riku and Kairi." Roxas said, looking around Axel's room. "They got tired of waiting for me."

"So you come to my house?" Axel frowned.

"Well, where else could I go?" Roxas smiled, making Axel feel a little nervous.

"You could go without me for once." Axel said.

"But I like talking to you, Axel." Roxas said, blushing slightly.

"I do too." Axel smiled.

"So are you ready?" Roxas asked, his face slowly loosing its pink complexion.

"I need some breakfast." Axel said. "I just woke up a few minutes ago."

Axel turned off the radio, the last chords of the song ringing in silence. Roxas followed Axel down to the kitchen, where the redhead proceeded to searching for some breakfast bars.

"Did you have breakfast, Rox?" Axel asked, ripping off the wrapper for a breakfast bar and grabbing his backpack.

"I had a waffle." Roxas said.

"Suit yourself." Axel shrugged.

He grabbed his backpack and followed Roxas outside. Walking off the porch, the boys started walking to school.

"So what did you do last night?" Axel asked the blonde.

"Played _Final Fantasy VII_ again." Roxas said.

"I really want to play that." Axel said.

"You haven't played it yet?" Roxas stared at his best friend in shock.

"Nope." Axel shook his head.

"I'm letting you borrow it." Roxas said. "It's a classic RPG."

"Is it for PC or PlayStation?" Axel asked.

"PC." Roxas said.

"Maybe I'll come over to your house sometime to play it." Axel said. "I'll probably forget to return it."

"It's ok." Roxas said. "I have it for PlayStation too. You can take whichever you want."

"Which do you play the least?" Axel asked.

"Probably PC." Roxas said as they turned a corner.

"Can I borrow that one?" Axel said. "I use the computer more anyway."

"No problem!" Roxas said. "You can come over after school and pick it up." He ran his fingers through his blonde hair and said, "You really should play it."

"That's what I've heard." Axel said, "What's so good about it?"

"Loads of stuff!" Roxas said. "Well, the graphics are pretty crappy for the most part, but that's because it came out in the late 90's. The battle graphics are pretty good." Roxas started talking faster and faster to the point where Axel had a hard time understanding what he was saying. "And you can blow things up with grenades and then there's Materia…"

"Slow down, Roxas." Axel laughed. He'd never seen Roxas this excited before. "I'll figure it all soon enough."

"I know." Roxas flushed slightly, embarrassed that he started talking 90 miles an hour like he used to do.

"No need to get embarrassed." Axel smiled.

"I'm not embarrassed." Roxas said, flushing even more.

"Then why is your face red?" Axel said teasingly.

"It's not." Roxas said.

"Whatever you say." Axel said.

When they arrived at school, they went to their lockers and met up with everyone in English. With them today was a new girl. She had shoulder-length blonde hair and cow brown eyes and was conversing with Kairi and Riku. Sora and Demyx were off in a corner talking about the latest Harry Potter movie.

"Axel, Roxas, this is Naminè." Riku said. "She just moved here from Wonderland."

"Wonderland, huh?" Axel said, running his fingers through his hair. "I bet it's fun there."

"Not really, actually." Naminè shrugged. "You get sick of it very quickly."

"I liked it when I went there on vacation." Kairi said.

"I've heard it's nice in Twilight Town." Naminè said.

"It's ok here." Riku said with a shrug.

"I guess Axel isn't the only newbie anymore." Roxas said.

"I just moved here a few months ago." Axel explained to a confused Naminè.

"Where from?" Naminè asked.

"Traverse Town." Axel ran his fingers through his red hair.

"Sounds nice." Naminè smiled.

The bell rang, calling the class to start. Andrews-sensei announced that they would be going to the library to research a topic for a PowerPoint. When they arrived at the library, Kairi, Sora, Riku and Demyx pulled Naminè over in the biography section away from Roxas and Axel.

"What's going on?" Naminè asked.

"It's about Roxas and Axel." Sora began.

"What about them?" Naminè asked.

"You must swear that you won't tell anyone." Demyx said, looking more serious than anyone present had ever seen.

"I never tell secrets." Naminè promised. "Especially big secrets, as it appears this is."

"We think Roxas and Axel are in love with each other." Riku said.

"Really?" Naminè looked surprised.

"You aren't homophobic, are you?" Sora said threateningly.

"Of course not!" Naminè said. "Back in Wonderland, one of my best friends was bi."

"Good." Demyx said.

"Why?" Naminè asked.

"Well, for one thing, Sora and Riku are lovers…" Kairi began.

"I could tell something was up." Naminè nodded.

"Our school is very homophobic, so don't say anything about us, ok?" Riku asked.

"No problem." Naminè said. "How did you find out about Roxas and Axel?"

"We aren't sure they even know yet." Kairi said. "They act like it, though."

"They act like Riku and Sora did before they started going out." Demyx explained, crossing his arms in front of his chest.

"Well, I won't say anything." Naminè promised.

"We'll find out eventually." Riku said. "In case you haven't noticed, Sora and Roxas are twins, so we'll hear from one of them."

"I think we'd better get to class." Kairi said. "We'll get in trouble."

* * *

Axel and Roxas were seated at the tables with laptops in front of them. Axel was leaning back lazily in his chair, while Roxas was scanning an article on Wikipedia.

"What's your presentation on?" Axel asked.

"The Third Reich." Roxas said, typing something.

"You know people are going to think you're a Nazi?" Axel frowned, looking at Roxas' monitor.

"They'll have to live with it." Roxas said.

That was one of the things Axel loved about Roxas. He didn't really care what other people thought about him.

"I didn't think you were very interested with WWII." Axel leaned back in his chair.

"That's what most people think." Roxas said. "In reality, I love learning about WWII. Especially the Nazis."

"Ok…" Axel wasn't sure how to react to that statement.

"What's yours on?" Roxas asked the redhead.

"Star Wars." Axel said.

"I didn't think you liked Star Wars?" the blonde frowned.

"You couldn't figure out that I liked it when you helped arrange my room?" Axel frowned.

"I guess not." Roxas said.

"Anyway, when is this thing due?" Axel asked.

"At the end of the block." Roxas said.

"I guess I'd better get working, huh?" Axel smiled.

"That would be a nice idea." Roxas smiled in return.

**It's a decent length...now Namine's in the story. i have no idea why she wasn't in the story in the begining, but i added her in for all you Namine fans. review, please!**

**next chapter: A debate in English! what's the topic?**


	13. Homophobia

**Disclaimer: Do i really need to say it?**

**It's Mika-chan! I had a fun time writing this chapter. Like I said, this is a controversial chapter. Let the deadly tale continue!**

When Roxas woke up the next morning, he wondered what he would do after school. It was weird to think of the afternoon so early, but the blonde felt that this was reasonable. Maybe he would hang out with Axel at the arcade again like the day before. Sighing, the blonde rolled out of bed, got dressed and went downstairs for breakfast. Roxas found Sora eating some cereal at the island.

"What time is it?" Sora asked his twin.

"Almost 7." Roxas said.

"That early?" Sora asked in surprise.

"Yep." Roxas grabbed a box of blackberries from the freezer, poured some in a bowl, and stuck them in the microwave.

"Is Axel stopping by again?" Sora asked.

"I dunno." Roxas shrugged. "Why?"

"Well, he never stopped by before." Sora said. "Before the other day, I mean."

"I usually go get him." Roxas said, taking his blackberries out of the microwave and joining his twin at the island. "He doesn't usually meet us here."

"Whatever you say." Sora shrugged.

At that moment, the doorbell rang.

"Speaking of the devil…" Sora smiled. "Better go let him in, Roxas. You know what Axel's like mad."

"I don't think he'd burn the house down." Roxas said.

Leaving the kitchen, he opened the front door to find Axel standing on the porch.

"I thought it might be you." Roxas smiled.

"Are you guys ready yet?" Axel smiled in return.

"Not yet." Roxas said. "I haven't even started breakfast yet."

"Why am I not surprised?" Axel rolled his emerald green eyes.

He followed Roxas back into the kitchen where Sora said, "What's up, Axel?"

"Not much, Sora." Axel said.

He sat down next to Roxas at the island.

"Did you have breakfast, Axel?" Sora asked the redhead.

"I had pancakes." Axel said. "Blueberry."

"Mom never makes us pancakes." Roxas complained.

"That's because she's never here in the morning." Sora rolled his eyes.

"Oh yeah." Roxas said.

"What are we doing in Psychology today, Roxas?" Axel asked the blonde.

"I think we're starting Anti-Social Personality Disorder." Roxas said, eating a spoonful of blackberries.

"Smashing." Axel rolled his eyes. "Can't we ever talk about something happy?"

"Apparently not." Roxas said.

"If you don't like depressing things, why the hell did you sign up for it, Axel?" Sora asked, putting his dirty bowl and spoon in the sink.

"It was different in Traverse Town." Axel shrugged. "Roxas, aren't you done yet?"

"Do I look done to you?" Roxas asked in reply.

"Well, hurry up!" Axel exclaimed. "Kairi and Naminè said that Demyx is ready."

"Wow." Sora looked mildly impressed. "I didn't think Demyx could do that."

"I didn't either." Roxas said.

He finished up his blackberries and put the dirty dishes in the sink.

"Ready yet?" Axel smiled.

"Yes, Axel, I am." Roxas said.

The three grabbed their backpacks and left. Once they arrived at school, they stopped at their lockers and went to English. Andrews-sensei had written the words 'Class Debate' on the front board.

"I wonder what the debate's about." Axel said, sinking into his seat next to Roxas.

Roxas shrugged and sat down at his desk. Pretty soon, class started and Andrews-sensei walked into the room.

"What's the topic of discussion?" Vexen asked.

"Today, we will be discussing a fairly controversial topic: homophobia."

Almost at once, the class seemed tenser. Roxas looked over at Axel to see that the redhead was looking slightly nervous.

"Are you ok, Axel?" Roxas asked.

"Yeah…" Axel said, but Roxas wasn't sure that Axel was being completely honest with him.

"What about it?" Demyx asked.

"I want to know your opinion of homophobia and gay rights." Andrews-sensei said. "You all should be keeping up with the news and know what the rest of the nation feels about gay rights. What are your views?"

"I don't see what the big deal is." Kairi said.

"God never intended for 2 guys or 2 girls to be in love." Melissa said.

"But does it say anywhere in the Bible that it can't happen?" Axel said rather fiercely, catching Roxas and everyone else in the back by complete surprise. "It never says that it's a sin to love someone of the same gender."

"But it's just not right." Patrick said.

"And how is it not right?" Riku and Sora said together.

"It just isn't." Melissa said.

"But you must have some proof that it isn't right." Andrews-sensei said. "You need to be able to back up your point."

"It just looks weird." Melissa said.

"So what if it's weird?" Riku said, looking at Sora uncertainly. "That doesn't mean it's wrong."

"I agree." Sora said. "If I came in to school one day with pink hair, you guys would think it's weird, right? But it isn't wrong, now is it?"

"But it isn't as weird as being in love with someone of the same gender." Patrick said.

"So what?" Axel said. "There are no laws anywhere that say that it's illegal or wrong to love someone of the same gender."

"But it's implied that it's wrong." Andrea said.

"But in today's society, lots of things are wrong." Axel said, starting to get annoyed. "Alcoholism, child abuse, drug addiction…"

"What are you saying, Axel?" Andrea asked.

"I'm saying, Andrea," Axel said. "That many of the things that society deems wrong tend to be things that affect a vast majority of people."

"But you don't see lots of gay people, now do you?" Patrick sneered.

"That's because everyone who is gay or lesbian has to hide it." Naminè said, speaking for the first time. "In Wonderland, it wasn't a crime to be gay or lesbian. People accepted it. And, frankly, I can't see why people in Twilight Town feel otherwise."

"Well, that's just weird." Patrick said.

"We do not criticize other people's opinions." Andrews-sensei frowned. "But I can see Naminè's point."

Roxas looked over at Axel, who was looking very angry at the moment. Had something someone said touched a nerve? Roxas had never seen Axel so made before.

"I think we should end this discussion while we're ahead." Andrews-sensei said, looking nervous. "Everyone take out your textbooks and turn to page 836 to _The Tell-Tale Heart _by Edgar Allan Poe.

At the end of English, Axel was still glowering. While they were walking to Algebra with Demyx, Roxas asked, "Axel, are you ok?"

"Just a little pissed, that's all." Axel said, sounding annoyed.

"About what?" Demyx asked.

"The whole debate thing." Axel sighed.

"What about it?" Roxas asked, trying not to make Axel any angrier.

""The fact that this whole fucking school is against everything." Roxas knew that Axel must really be mad. He never said fuck unless he was really ticked off. "And I know you must not have a problem with it, Roxas. After all, your own brother is gay, and you don't say anything about it."

"You must feel really strongly about this." Demyx said.

He walked into the classroom, leaving Roxas and Axel outside in the hallway.

"Aren't we going inside?" Roxas asked.

"There's something I thought you should know." Axel said. "But I don't want you to tell anyone else yet, ok?"

"I won't tell anyone." Roxas said. "I'm not Demyx."

Axel smiled a little, making Roxas feel a little better. He didn't like it when Axel got mad. It didn't happen very often, but when Axel got mad, he got really mad.

"I think I'm gay." Axel said.

"Ok, so?" Roxas said.

"But I don't want everyone to know yet." Axel said. "Not until I know if he likes me back."

Roxas nodded.

"I won't tell anyone." He said. "I think I know how you feel."

Axel nodded. Roxas followed the redhead into the classroom with Demyx, who was yelling about leaving him in the classroom all by himself.

**So Axel might be gay...**

**next chapter: beach!**


	14. Vacation

**Disclaimer: Still don't own KH**

**It's Mika-chan! Sorry this chapter is a little shorter than the others. the next chapter is going to be pretty long, so I wanted this to be a whole chapter. Let the deadly tale continue!**

"I think we should go on a trip."

Everyone was walking home from school the next day when Sora spoke up suddenly.

"A trip to where, Sora?" Naminè asked. "And why?"

"The beach." Riku said at once.

"And why?" Naminè asked.

"Because we have a break for a week before the next term starts." Sora said. "I know Roxas and I haven't been to the beach for a while."

"Does anyone here have a beach house?" Axel asked, "I hate hotels."

"Roxas and I do." Sora said.

"And are you allowed to use it without your parents?" Riku asked.

"They don't really care one way or another." Roxas shrugged.

"So we're going to the beach?" Demyx asked.

"I guess we are, Demy." Axel said.

"Well, everyone call Roxas and Sora to make sure we're going." Kairi said.

"When are we leaving?" Naminè asked.

"Let's leave around 8." Roxas said. "Wait, can anyone drive?"

"Axel's the only one who can drive legally right?" Kairi asked.

"I can drive in 2 weeks." Demyx said.

"But that's not tomorrow, now is it?" Riku rolled his eyes.

"No…" Demyx said sadly.

"I guess I'll be driving then." Axel said. "Who's car are we going in?"

"My mom has a mini-van." Naminè offered.

"Would she mind if I drive it?" Axel asked.

"I don't think she would." Naminè shook her head.

"Ok then." Axel put his hands behind his head. "So let's meet at Naminè's tomorrow morning."

"Sounds good to me." Riku said.

"Wait, how long will we be there?" Demyx asked.

"A week?" Kairi suggested.

"That sounds long enough." Riku nodded.

"So a week it is?" Demyx asked.

"I guess so." Roxas nodded.

"We'll see you guys later." Sora said, as he and Roxas arrived at their house.

Walking inside, Roxas and Sora found their mother in the kitchen making dinner.

"Mom, can we go to the beach for a week?" Roxas asked, sitting down at the island.

"A whole week?" Their mother looked surprised. "How are you going to get there?"

"Axel can drive." Sora shrugged.

"Does he have his licence?" their mother asked.

Roxas and Sora nodded.

"I think you guys are old enough to be trusted away from home for a week." Their mother said, chopping onions. "I want you guys to call every night, though."

Roxas scowled, but Sora said, "I guess that's fair."

"When are you guys leaving?" their mother asked.

"Tomorrow at 8." Roxas said.

"We'll probably leave around 9." Sora shrugged "Demyx is never on time for anything."

"I want you two to know that there are to be no alcohol or drugs allowed." Their mother said.

"That's common sense, Mom." Roxas said, grabbing his backpack and heading up the stairs to his room.

When Roxas went up to his room, he decided he'd better start packing. The blonde packed some cds with his iPod. His ocean blue eyes fell upon Axel's mixed cd. Opening the case, he noticed that there were 2 cds inside instead of 1. The first was labeled 'Axel's Mix'. The second was labeled 'For Roxas'. Roxas frowned. Axel didn't tell him that he had burned him a second cd. And he was sure that the redhead hadn't burned a second cd for Sora. Roxas set the second cd on his desk and put the first in his cd player. He was packing his clothes when Sora came in.

"Hey, Sora? Axel didn't burn you 2 cds, did he?" Roxas asked.

"No, why?" Sora frowned.

"Well, I just found his cd and he burned me 2." Roxas said.

"Maybe he wanted you to hear some other ones?" Sora shrugged. "I don't know, Roxas."

"What do you want?" Roxas asked, now annoyed that his brother was in his room.

"I just wanted to tell you that you should start packing, but I see you already have." Sora said as he left, shutting the door behind him.

Roxas was left alone in his room. Why did Axel burn him a second cd? And what did it mean?

**I know my parents wouldn't let me go to a beach house with friends and no parents. but parents would be in the way, so they won't be involved. review please!**

**next chapter: who makes a car ride so nerve wracking?**


	15. Don't car ride with Demyx

**Disclaimer: Still don't own KH. How much do you think i'd have to pay in order to do so?**

**It's Mika-chan! I'm updating fast, aren't i? I had to write a story for creative writing, and I MIGHT make it an AkuRoku. Probably not, though. Maybe a KakuHi. I love KakuHi...anyway, let the deadly tale continue!**

Everyone was waiting in front of Naminè's house. Everyone, that is, except for Axel.

"Axel's never late." Demyx said.

"We're usually waiting for you, Demyx." Riku rolled his eyes.

"I'm not always late!" Demyx exclaimed.

"Yes, you are." Sora said. "Roxas, go find Axel."

"Why me?" Roxas looked at his brother in annoyance.

"Because I said so." Sora said.

Roxas scowled, but walked off towards Axel's house.

"I wonder where Axel is…" Kairi said. "It isn't like him to be late."

"I know he isn't sick." Sora said. "He called Roxas this morning to make sure that he was still driving."

"I'm not so sure about that…" Kairi said.

"It'll be ok, Kai." Naminè assured her. "It's not like Demyx is driving."

"I don't want to imagine Demyx driving." Riku squeezed his eyes shut, looking like he was trying to block an image out of his head.

"Thanks, Riku." Demyx scowled.

"No problem." Riku said. "So what are we gonna do for a week once we get there?"

"How should I know?" Kairi shrugged.

"Sora, how long does it take to get there?" Naminè asked.

"4-5 hours." Sora said. "Depending on the traffic."

"I hope they hurry up." Demyx said.

"We're back."

Axel and Roxas reached the group.

"That didn't take long." Naminè observed.

"I couldn't find my iPod." Axel said. "I had to tear my whole room apart."

"Not that you can use your iPod in the car when you're driving…" Riku rolled his eyes.

"Let's get this show on the road, then!" Demyx exclaimed.

"I'm dreading this already." Roxas said.

Naminè opened the trunk and everyone put their luggage in the back. Axel got the driver's seat with Roxas in the passenger's seat. Riku, Sora and Demyx were in the middle, which left the back seats for Naminè and Kairi.

"Ok, just so you guys know, I'm not allowed to drive for really long distances at a time." Axel informed the group.

"Then why are you driving?" Demyx questioned.

"I'm allowed to drive." Axel clarified. "We just need to stop for half an hour every hour."

"Why?" Riku asked.

"It's a stupid driving thing." Axel rolled his eyes. "I dunno."

"So are we all set?" Kairi asked from the back seat.

"Demyx, you don't have anything that could cause the car to explode, do you?" Sora asked.

"Nope." Demyx said.

"You'd better not." Axel said darkly as he pulled the mini-van out of the driveway.

When they hit the highway about 10 minutes later, Demyx thought it would be a great idea to sing as loud as humanly possible.

"_You've taken all I can take and I cannot wait. We're wasting too much time…"_

"Shut it, Demyx." Roxas hissed as Demyx started to sing _It's not Over _from Daughtry, looking up from the book he was reading: Lord of the Rings book 2.

"But I like that song…" Demyx pouted.

"Not while I'm driving, ok?" Axel said, one hand on the steering wheel while his left arm was propped against the window.

"How much longer?" Kairi asked.

"A long time, Kai." Roxas said.

"It'll seem longer with Demyx." Naminè said.

Even though she was the newest to the group, Naminè caught on to Demyx's unpredictable behaviour very quickly.

"Is Sora asleep already?" Axel asked, not wanting to take his eyes off the road.

"Not yet." Sora replied.

"What are you doing?" Roxas turned around in his seat to face his brother.

"Sudoku." Sora said.

"I love Sudoku!" Naminè exclaimed.

"Want me to rip one out for you?" Sora asked.

"If you can spare another." Naminè said.

"Don't worry." Sora assured her as he ripped out a page and gave it to her. "Roxas gave me 4 Sudoku books for our birthday."

"And you gave me word searches." Roxas remembered. "I brought those with me."

"I'll take one, Roxie!" Demyx exclaimed.

"What did I say about Roxie?" Roxas glared at Demyx.

"But what else can I call you?" Demyx asked. "And what about the word searches?"

"Just Roxas is fine." Roxas said, facing the front again. "And no word search."

Demyx scowled, but returned to his video game.

"It's a little quiet." Naminè said. "Axel, will you be able to concentrate with some music on?"

"It's fine by me." Axel said. "Just nothing that Demyx knows the words to."

"I brought my cd of random songs." Riku said.

"Let's listen to that, then." Kairi said.

"I have to find it first." Riku said.

It took him a few minutes of fishing through his backpack to find the cd. After Roxas put he cd in the cd player, there was a minute of silence before a few guitar chords could be heard.

"What's this, Riku?" Kairi asked.

"_Broadway _by the Goo-Goo Dolls." Riku said, returning to the guide for Final Fantasy IV.

"I didn't think you liked the Goo-Goo Dolls." Axel said.

"They're ok." Riku shrugged.

As it turned out, Riku had a lot of rock on his cd. Bands varied from AC/DC to Disturbed, much to Kairi's dislike, to Paramore. They had finished Riku's cd when Axel decided that they would stop at a gas station and walk around for a little bit.

"Don't think about leaving the keys in the ignition." Roxas told the redhead as he shut the car door.

"Are you kidding?" Axel looked at Roxas like he had 2 heads. "I'd never do that. Especially when this isn't my car."

"At least you have some sense." Roxas said.

He joined Sora in the aisle filled with small bags of chips in the store by the gas station.

"So how are things between you and Riku?" he asked his twin.

"Really well." Sora smiled. "I didn't think he wanted to take things this seriously, but he does."

"And that's a good thing?" Roxas asked.

"Most definitely." Sora nodded. "I was ready for a serious relationship a while ago, but Riku wasn't. I was just waiting for him."

"I hope everything works out ok." Roxas said. "Mom's just gonna have to deal with the fact that you have a boyfriend instead of a girlfriend."

"She won't take that too well." Sora grimaced. "But what about you, Roxas? Found anyone you like yet?"

"Not really…"

Roxas still hadn't decided on how he felt about Axel just yet. He wanted to understand them completely before he did something that could change his life forever.

"You're not gay, are you?" Sora asked.

"I think so." Roxas said. "Why?"

"Mom's gonna be even more mad when she finds that out." Sora said. "Does she know?"

"I don't think so." Roxas said.

"But you said not really…" Sora said. "That means you're thinking about someone!"

"No…" Roxas said, blushing a little.

"You're blushing, Roxas." Sora smiled.

"Come on, Sora." Roxas said. "When I find the right person, you'll know."

"I'll know for sure." Sora said. "We tend to find out lots of stuff about each other."

"That's because we're related, idiot." Roxas rolled his eyes.

Once they paid, Roxas and Sora went out to the mini-van to find everyone else waiting.

"What took you?" Kairi asked.

"In depth conversation." Sora said, climbing into his seat.

Roxas resumed his spot in the front, opening his bag of Fritos.

"Can I switch seats?" Demyx asked.

Axel turned around and asked, "Why?"

"I don't like being in between Sora and Riku." Demyx said.

"You'll have to live with it because I don't think Naminè and Kairi are going to let you sit back with them." Axel said, staring the mini-van and pulling out of the parking lot.

"No way." Kairi shook her head.

After driving 20 minutes, Demyx said, "It's quiet again."

"Whatever you do, don't be loud." Axel said. "Unless you want me to drive into a ditch?"

"I don't think mom would like that." Naminè said.

"I don't think she would." Kairi smiled.

"Then let's put some more music on." Riku suggested. "Anyone else bring some cds?"

"I brought mine." Roxas said.

"Me too." Kairi said.

"Nothing of Kairi's." Sora said, munching on some Combos. "We don't like opera."

"Mine isn't that bad, Kai." Roxas said.

"As long as we don't hear any more Disturbed." Kairi said.

"I don't think I have any on." Roxas said, sticking his cd in the cd-player.

As soon as the song started, Demyx started singing along.

"What _is _this?" Naminè asked.

"_The Sharpest Lives _by My Chemical Romance." Roxas said.

"Shut up, Demyx!" Riku smacked Demyx in the back of the head.

An argument broke out between Riku, Demyx, and Sora, who somehow managed to get involved. Roxas and Axel ignored the argument, as did Kairi and Naminè.

"Hey Axel?" Roxas asked. "Why did you burn me 2 cds?"

"Because I think you'll like the stuff on the second disk." Axel said, emerald green eyes focused on the road.

"But you didn't burn anyone else 2 cds." Roxas observed.

"I don't think they'd like the songs that much." Axel said. "Have you listened to the second one yet?"

"To be honest, I haven't listened to the first." Roxas admitted. "This is my first time hearing it."

"I like the second one better." Axel said. "Did you bring it with you?"

"It's at home." Roxas said. "I'll listen to it when we get back."

Axel nodded. At that moment, Demyx decided to start singing again.

"_There's a place in the dark where the animals go. You can take off your skin in the cannibal glow…_"

Axel looked at Roxas and said, "Remind me never to take Demyx in a car again."

**Didn't I say this one would be longer? I did! I had a blast writing Demyx. Poor Axel, trying to drive and ignore Demyx at the same time... Review please!**

**next chapter: the gang reaches the beach.**


	16. Arrival

**Disclaimer; I would love to own KH. I don't think they'd let me. what do you think?**

**It's Mika-chan!!! This was a fun chapter to write. the beach! yea!!!!! I'm almost at 75 pages. Wow. Anyway...let the deadly tale continue!**

Several hours later, Axel was about ready to drive the mini-van into a ditch because of Demyx's singing. Apparently, the rest of the group thought Demyx was getting annoying, too. Kairi and Naminè started talking louder whenever Demyx went particularly flat or sharp. Riku and Sora had long since fallen asleep. Roxas couldn't hear Demyx because the blonde had turned his iPod up so loud that Axel could hear songs like _Beast and the Harlot, Master of Puppets _and _The Fight Song _being played at regular intervals. Poor Axel was forced to listen to whatever Demyx was listening to on his iPod. Finally, after Demyx sang every song on his iPod at least twice, Axel announced, "Made it."

Riku and Sora awoke with a start and looked around.

"Where are we?" Riku asked sleepily.

"Where have I been driving for the past several hours, resisting the temptation to throw Demyx out the window?" Axel asked, somewhat annoyed, as he pulled the mini-van into the driveway.

"The beach!" Demyx exclaimed happily.

"Haven't you lost your voice yet?" Axel asked, taking the keys out of the ignition and stepping out of the car.

"Nope!" Axel couldn't see how anyone could be so cheerful.

"Let's unload, shall we?" Naminè said, seeing that Axel was about ready to throttle Demyx.

"Be careful with my guitar!" Demyx called to Kairi, who was already unloading the back of the van.

"You brought your guitar?" Roxas raised his eyebrows.

"You bet I did!" Demyx exclaimed, taking the case from Kairi and setting it gently on the grass. "I take this everywhere with me."

"You don't take it to school." Riku protested.

"Thank God…" Axel groaned as he retrieved his sports bag and set it with Roxas' stuff.

"Because it would get stolen at school." Demyx said.

"Then why don't you take it?" Sora suggested. "We'd love to have a day when we don't hear you playing that thing."

"But I like to play it…" Demyx frowned.

"But we don't want to hear you." Riku said as they brought everything into the beach house.

The house was exactly as Roxas and Sora remembered it. The walls in the hallway were a strange shade of cerulean. The tile was still the same white marble. The living room was next to the kitchen. The interior in general reminded Axel of a beach. Which made sense, since it was a _beach house._

"Who's gonna bunk with who?" Roxas asked.

"How many rooms do you have?" Riku asked, setting his bags down on the floor.

"3." Sora said.

"And 2 bathrooms." Roxas added, "Each bedroom has 2 beds."

"Why do you have 3 rooms if the only people that come down here are you and your parents?" Naminè asked.

"My parents brought their friends sometimes." Roxas said.

"I call Riku!" Sora exclaimed.

"I was thinking that Sora and Roxas could share a room." Kairi said.

"Well, you and Naminè can have your own room." Axel said, running his fingers through his unruly hair.

"Is that ok, Sora?" Naminè asked.

"It's fine by me." Sora said. "I don't think Roxas cares."

"Wait a minute…" Riku frowned.

"What is it?" Roxas asked.

"If each room has 2 beds, then one person has to sleep on the floor." Riku observed.

"I brought my sleeping bag." Demyx said. "Just in case."

"Well, that's solved." Axel said.

"So I guess that leaves Roxas and Axel with a room." Kairi said.

"Yea." Roxas rolled his eyes.

"What about me?" Demyx wanted to know. "Where do I sleep?"

"On the living room floor." Roxas said.

"Why?" Demyx looked bewildered.

"Because no one is going to want you in their room." Riku sighed.

"You're going to sleep on the floor anyway." Axel said. "Why does it matter where?"

"I dunno." Demyx shrugged.

"So what are we gonna do first?" Kairi asked.

"Let's unpack first." Sora suggested. "Then we'll decide."

Everyone went to their own room. Roxas followed Axel down the hall and into a room. The walls were white with pictures of the ocean in frames. The carpet was a curious shade of purple that reminded Roxas of plums. On the far wall were 2 beds. Above the beds was a window that overlooked a canal with boats tied to the docks.

"How often did you come here?" Axel asked Roxas, setting his stuff on one bed.

"Once every summer." Roxas replied. "Sora and I stay in this room."

"Sounds cool." Axel said, "You guys didn't bring Riku or Kairi with you?"

"They were always busy." Roxas shrugged, looking out the window.

"What now?" Axel asked.

Roxas opened his mouth to speak when Demyx poked his head through the door.

"What, Demyx?" Roxas sighed.

"Sora wanted me to let you know that we're going to start dinner soon." Demyx said.

"What is it?" Axel asked.

"We're taking turns." Demyx said. "Naminè's doing it tonight."

Demyx's head retreated behind the door again, leaving Roxas and Axel alone.

"But he didn't say what it was." Roxas pointed out.

"Maybe he doesn't know." Axel shrugged.

"Does he know anything?" Roxas smiled.

"No, not really." Axel smiled in return. "Let's go to the dock, ok? You can show me around."

"Should we take Riku and Sora?" Roxas asked.

"Nah." Axel shook his head. "Just tell Sora that we'll be back before dinner. I'll be outside."

"Sounds good to me." Roxas said.

He went to Riku and Sora's room to find the two playing Chinese Checkers.

"Axel and I are going walking." Roxas said. "We'll be back before dinner."

"Going on a date, are we?" Riku smiled at the blonde.

"No!" Roxas flushed bright red.

"Sure you're not…" Riku laughed a little.

"Cut it out, Riku." Sora told the silver haired boy in front of him. "I'll call you when dinner's ready, ok?"

"Sounds good." Roxas said.

He went outside to find Axel waiting on the porch, watching a crane on the island in the middle of the canal.

"Sora's gonna call me when dinner's ready." Roxas said.

"We can stay out longer." Axel said. "So what is there to see?"

"Not much here, really." Roxas said. "All the good stuff is in town."

"Let's go into town, then." Axel said.

"I can live with that." Roxas said.

* * *

"What do you think, Sora?"

Riku and Sora had abandoned their game of Chinese Checkers and were now sitting on the porch, watching ships sail up and down the canal.

"About what?" Sora asked, hands behind his head.

"About Roxas and Axel." Riku said.

"I think Axel knows." Sora said.

"That Roxas likes him?" Riku asked.

"That he's in love with Roxas." Sora clarified. "I don't think Roxas knows yet."

"Did you see him blush earlier, Sora?" Riku looked at his friend. "I think he knows."

"I'm not so sure, Riku." Sora said. "He's almost there."

"To the point of admitting he's in love with Axel, you mean?" Riku nodded. "But why won't Axel say anything?"

"You know Axel." Sora shrugged. "He won't say anything until he's certain of something."

"But he is certain." Riku said. "At least he acts like he does."

"I think Axel wants Roxas to figure it out first." Sora said. "Axel likes games like that."

"If you say so." Riku said.

* * *

Roxas was looking all over the bookstore, trying to find Axel. They had been walking down a street when Roxas saw the popular bookstore that Roxas and Sora had visited with their parents in years past. Upon the blonde's suggestion, they went inside to see what was there. Now Roxas was ready to go, but Axel was nowhere to be seen.

"Where _is _he?" Roxas asked himself as he walked down the aisle filled with books on dictators.

He finally found the redhead in the vampire section. Axel was sitting on the floor; book in hand, emerald green eyes glued to whatever he was reading. Roxas approached the redhead and said, "Ready to go?"

"Not yet." Axel said, eyes still glued to the book.

"Sora called." Roxas said. "He said dinner's ready."

"I'm not hungry." Axel said.

"Come on, Axel!" Roxas exclaimed. "We'll come back later if you want."

Axel sighed, and said, "Ok…"

He put the book back on the shelf and followed the blonde out of the store. Walking back to the beach house, Roxas said, "I can't imagine you reading, Axel. About vampires, no less."

"I actually read, Roxas." Axel pretended to look mortally offended.

"But you don't read in school." Roxas pointed out.

"That stuff bores me." Axel said.

"Well, what do you like to read about?" Roxas queried.

"Vampires." Axel said. "Witchcraft…stuff like that."

"I never would've guessed." Roxas said.

Axel smiled and said, "Most people wouldn't."

* * *

"They should be here by now…"

Sora was pacing the kitchen while everyone else was setting the table.

"Relax, Sora." Riku said. "You and Roxas have been here so many times, he could probably find the place with his eyes shut."

"We don't go into town that much." Sora said.

"Sora, quit worrying and help us out here." Demyx said.

"They'll be back." Kairi assured him. "You just called Roxas. Give him a chance to get here."

Sora shrugged. Taking the plates from Naminè, he started to set the table. A few minutes later, Roxas and Axel walked through the back door.

"What took you?" Naminè asked.

"I had to find Axel." Roxas shrugged.

"Where was he?" Demyx asked.

"In the vampire section." Axel said.

"Vampires?" Riku frowned. "Axel?"

"Yeah?" Axel responded.

"You like vampires?" Kairi asked.

"It's not a big deal." Axel said, taking some glasses from the cabinet and placing one around each setting.

"We'd never imagine you reading in the first place." Riku said.

"You're making me sound like Demyx!" Axel protested.

"Speaking of which, where _is _he?" Naminè asked.

Demyx was nowhere to be seen.

"Where did he go?" Roxas asked. "He was here a second ago!"

"I knew this would happen." Riku rolled his eyes. "Let's go find him."

"I'll go look." Kairi said. "You guys finish up."

She went outside and came back in a few minutes later with Demyx, looking very annoyed.

"Where did you go?" Axel asked.

"Larxene called me." Demyx said. "And I went outside to answer it."

"You could let us know before you wander off." Riku said.

"But I didn't wander off." Demyx protested.

Roxas rolled his eyes. It was going to be a long week.

**I'd shoot myself if I was in the car with Demyx for that long. I'm imagining the beach house to look like the condo we have in Ocean City, MD. So, it's not so much a house, but kinda like an apartment. ya get it? anyway, review please!**

**next chapter: movies and...poetry?**


	17. Vampire books and ear piercings

**Disclaimer: I don't own KH. If I did, Axel would be alive and Demyx would be in the game more often.**

**It's Mika-chan! Thanks to my many reviewers!! just so you guys know, i came up with 2 new plots for this story, so it's not over yet! and i really shouldn't be saying this, but someone's life is on the line in later chapters. I really shouldn't be saying anything at all, but i have no intention of ending this story yet. it might get well over a hundered pages long. the plot changed for this chapter a little. sorry! but i hope the next chapter makes up for it. anywa, i'm talking too much. on with the deadly tale! **

It turned out that Naminè was a really good cook. She didn't burn the food like Sora and Axel usually did, but it wasn't undercooked either. She had decided that she would make chicken, since they would be having hot dogs on the last day.

"So what are we going to do tonight?" Kairi asked.

"I'm supposed to call Larxene back." Demyx said.

"What did she want?" Riku asked.

"To make sure I didn't annoy everyone on the way down." Demyx said.

"And you did…" Sora glared at Demyx.

"Roxas and I are going to the bookstore." Axel said.

"Again?" Roxas looked at the redhead in surprise. "I didn't think you'd want to go again tonight!"

"But that was a really good book." Axel smiled.

"Well, we know what to get Axel for his birthday." Riku said. "Vampire books."

"I am looking for the last book of _Cirque du Freak _for anyone who wants to know." Axel nodded.

"Let's go tomorrow, ok?" Roxas rolled his eyes. "I don't think they're open that late, are they, Sora?"

"Not that I remember." Sora said.

"Kairi and I will have to go with you sometime." Naminè said. "Are there lots of books?"

"Lots of girly books." Roxas said. "But, you might not like girly books."

Naminè shrugged.

"So what about Riku and Sora?" Kairi asked. "What are you guys doing?"

"Riku wants to go swimming." Sora said.

"But we're going to the beach tomorrow, right?" Demyx frowned.

"That we are." Naminè said. "I guess Kai and I will watch a movie here."

"I guess I'm not the only one who brought movies." Axel said.

"What are you going to watch?" Demyx asked.

"No idea." Kairi said, taking a bite out of her chicken.

"As long as it isn't a chick flick." Sora shuddered.

"Why does it matter?" Kairi protested. "You guys won't be here."

"Good point." Riku shrugged. "But we'll be back before it's over, most likely."

* * *

"You know what I'm gonna do down here?"

Axel and Roxas were walking toward the bookshop for the second time in a day. This time, they had money with them so they could buy something. Axel had persuaded Roxas to go along, for the walk; even if the store was closed, they could still walk around. Roxas had a feeling that Axel would finish the vampire book long before the week was over. Which meant that Roxas would be forced to go to the bookstore again.

"What are you going to do?" Roxas asked the redhead.

"Get my ears pierced." Axel said.

Roxas looked at Axel in surprise.

"Really?"

"Why wouldn't I?" Axel frowned. "I have pretty much everything else done."

"No you don't." Roxas rolled his eyes.

"That's true." Axel shrugged. "I think I'd look better with my ears pierced."

"Whatever you say." Roxas said. "Cartilage or lobe?"

"Maybe both while I'm at it." Axel said, avoiding a tree root sticking out of the ground.

"Does your mom know about this?" Roxas asked.

"She said she doesn't care." Axel said.

"Just make sure you get it done hygienically." Roxas said.

"I know." Axel said. "Hey!"

"What?" Roxas said in a bored voice.

"You should get yours done, too." Axel said.

"Why on Earth would I do that?" Roxas half-laughed at the redhead's absurd idea.

"You'd look cool with your ears pierced, Rox!" Axel said.

"I'd forget to wear them and they'd close up." Roxas said.

"I'll make sure you don't forget." Axel said.

"I'll think about it." Roxas said as they arrived at the bookstore.

As soon as they walked in the door, Axel raced over to the vampire section. Roxas looked at some books on Greek myths, since that was his favourite topic to read at the moment. Then he decided he'd better try to find Axel. He found the redhead on the floor again, nose in the same book.

"I see you found it." Roxas smiled.

"Shhh!" Axel said.

Roxas smiled and looked at the books on the shelf behind Axel's head. Or attempted to, anyway. Every time Roxas tried to make Axel move even a fraction of an inch over, the redhead would turn as stiff as a board and not move.

"Come on, Axel!" Roxas sighed. "I actually want to read something, too."

Axel sighed, but stood up, finger marking his place in the book.

"I didn't think you liked vampires." Axel frowned, watching Roxas scan the different book titles.

"I read one every now and then." Roxas said. "I'm more into witchcraft."

"I guess I can believe that." Axel shrugged.

"So are we gonna get them done?" Roxas asked.

Axel looked at the blonde in confusion.

"What are you talking about?"

"You said you wanted to get our ears pierced." Roxas said. "I guess I can live with that."

"Awesome!" Axel jumped up and down. "So when are we gonna do it?"

"Whenever." Roxas said. "There's a really good place down on 3rd Street that does a lot of piercings. Sora got his done there."

"_Sora _got his ears done?" Axel looked at the blonde in surprise.

"He let the holes close up." Roxas said. "He said he felt like a girl."

"But he wouldn't look like one." Axel pointed out. "And I don't think you would either."

"I'll call him and tell him we'll be home later than usual." Roxas said.

He pulled his cell phone out of his pocket and called Sora.

"Hey, it's Roxas. Listen, Axel and I are going to be a little late. We have a surprise that we're going to show you…not yet…give us some time here, Sora! I'll be home before 9, ok? Right. See ya."

Roxas put the phone in his pocket and said, "Well, shall we then?"

* * *

"He's doing what?"

Sora, Riku, and Naminè were out on the deck watching the sunset.

"He said that he and Axel are going to be out late." Sora repeated his twin's words. "They have a surprise for us."

"You don't think…" Riku said.

"I don't think they're going out yet." Naminè said.

"Me neither." Sora shook his head. "Axel would be a little anxious if he was going to ask out Roxas. And Roxas seems like he always does."

"Sora, how would you feel if they actually started going out?" Naminè asked.

"I think it's a good idea." Sora said. "Roxas needs to be with someone and he obviously wants to be with Axel. Whether he knows it yet or not is another story."

"So you don't care?" Riku clarified.

"I'm all for it." Sora said. "Now if he fell for Demyx, I'd be worried. I don't think I'd have to worry about Axel."

"Its amazing Larxene goes out with Demyx." Riku said.

"That it is." Naminè said.

"You don't know Larxene." Riku shook his head.

"Is she that bad?" Naminè asked.

"She's a sadist." Sora said.

"Opposites attract, I guess." Naminè shrugged.

"And likes repel." Riku said.

"You didn't really need to finish it, Riku." Sora said.

"I know." Riku shrugged. "I just felt like it."

* * *

"That hurt more than I thought it would." Roxas gingerly touched his earlobe, trying not to touch the sore spot where his ear had just been pierced.

"It didn't hurt that much." Axel said as they walked back to the beach house.

"It felt like the needle was still in my ear." Roxas said.

"You almost passed out on me." Axel laughed. "I was afraid I'd have to call Sora to come pick us up."

"You could have carried me home." Roxas said. "I'm not that heavy."

"But it would look weird if I was carrying a kid down the street." Axel said.

"Hey, I'm the same age as you are." Roxas protested.

"I'm a few months older." Axel corrected the blonde.

"You're like Sora." Roxas said. "Always telling me I'm the youngest."

"How much older is Sora?" Axel asked, not remembering Roxas ever telling him.

"10 minutes." Roxas scowled. "I'm the youngest of everyone."

"Really?" Axel wasn't expecting this. "I thought Kairi was the youngest?"

"Her birthday is in August." Roxas said.

"And yours is in October?" Axel asked.

"Almost Halloween." Roxas said.

"I'll swap birthdays with you." Axel said.

"When's yours?" Roxas asked.

"In April." Axel said.

"Lucky." Roxas scowled.

"I'd love to have a birthday near Halloween." Axel said as they approached the beach house.

"It's pretty cool." Roxas shrugged.

They walked around to the deck, where Riku and Sora were still sitting on the steps.

"What did you guys do?" Riku asked.

"Should we tell them?" Axel asked the blonde.

"Let's see if they can figure it out." Roxas said.

"You don't look any different." Sora said, looking his twin up and down. "Your hair is the same colour…"

"We didn't do anything really drastic." Axel shrugged, joining Riku and Sora on the steps with Roxas.

"I see it, Sora." Riku smiled.

"What is it?" Sora asked.

"Do you guys want me to tell him?" Riku smiled. "I can't believe you did that…"

"What is it?" Sora asked.

"We got our ears pierced, Sora." Roxas said.

"What?" Sora looked at his twin again. This time, he saw the small silver hoop on his right ear. "What brought this on?"

"I've wanted to get mine done for ages." Axel said. "I just convinced little Roxas to get his done too."

"I still think I look weird." Roxas said.

"You're not used to it yet." Riku said.

"You don't look weird at all, Roxas." Axel smiled.

"Where is everyone else?" Roxas asked Sora.

"Demyx went to take a shower and Kairi and Naminè are watching a movie." Sora said.

"Let's go see if they're done yet." Roxas said.

The 4 went up the steps and inside. Kairi and Naminè were sitting on the couch watching the movie: _Music and Lyrics_.

"I said no chick flicks." Sora said.

"It's almost done." Kairi scowled.

"Then can we watch _Advent Children_?" Axel asked.

"I like that movie!" Naminè exclaimed.

Kairi looked at her friend in surprise.

"You do?"

"Uh-huh." Naminè nodded.

"Let me guess…" Roxas said, sitting down on the floor against the couch while Axel went to find the DVD. "You only watch it for Cloud, right?"

"And Reno." Naminè said. "And Vincent."

"Go figure." Riku rolled his eyes.

"What?" Axel said as he walked back into the room, DVD in hand.

"Naminè only watched _Advent Children _because of Cloud, Reno and Vincent." Sora told the redhead.

"Typical girl." Axel said.

"Is it really good?" Kairi asked.

"It has a lot of action, but I like it." Naminè said.

"I guess I can give it a shot." Kairi said.

About halfway through the movie, just after the fight in the Forgotten City, Demyx decided he'd watch the remainder of the movie with them. After the movie was over, Axel went to take a shower while Roxas went out on the front porch, enjoying the night air. The first day wasn't so bad. Sure, Demyx in the car was bad enough, but maybe he'd sleep on the way back. Roxas laughed to himself. Demyx sleep? Not a chance.

**i didn't really plan the piercings until i was already writing. but Axel would look good with pierced ears, ne? let me know what you think!**

**next chapter: poetry and the beach!**


	18. Axel's poem

**Disclaimer: I only own Axel's poem. because i wrote it. not axel.**

**It's Mika-chan! 2 updates in a day! I'm going to be cutting teh beach part short. i want to get to the part where i will probably have many readers throwing rotten tomatoes at me and aboutready to murder me. it's going to pretty angst in the next few chapters. please don't kill me:hides under table: let the deadly tale continue!**

When Roxas woke up the next morning, the small bedroom was filled with sunlight. It was probably late morning. Looking over at the bed next to him, Roxas saw Axel awake with a spiral notebook in hand, writing something. Next to him was his iPod, headphones lying on the bed plugged into the music player. Roxas could hear music playing softly, though he couldn't determine the song.

"You decided to wake up, huh?" Axel smiled.

"What time is it?" Roxas asked groggily.

"Almost 9." Axel said, emerald green eyes on the spiral.

"What are you writing?" Roxas asked.

"You can't read it until I'm finished." Axel said.

"Why not?" Roxas really wanted to know what he was writing.

"You'll find out, I promise." Axel smiled.

"Can you give me a hint?" Roxas asked.

Axel paused and said, "It's a poem. That's all I'll say."

Roxas scowled, but fell silent.

"I guess we should get breakfast, huh?"

"That would be nice." Axel said.

Getting out of bed, the boys walked out of the room and into the kitchen. Kairi was sitting at the island, finishing up a bowl of cereal.

"What's up, Kai?" Roxas asked.

"Are you both just waking up?" she asked.

"I was waiting for Roxas." Axel said.

"Sora and Riku are at the pool." Kairi told them." Naminè and Demyx are at the bookstore."

"She went with Demyx?" Axel frowned, still working on his poem.

"I told her I'd stay here to make sure you two got up." Kairi smiled. "And Sora wanted me to tell you that we're going to the beach after lunch, so get ready before he gets back."

"He doesn't know how to relax, does he?" Roxas rolled his eyes as Kairi went back to her room.

"I guess not." Axel said.

They ate breakfast, toast and cereal, and walked out to the deck. Roxas stood by the rail, watching people sailing up and down the canal while Axel worked on his poem. Every now and then, Roxas would hear the redhead mutter something to himself, then scratch something out on the page.

"Is this going to be a novel or a short story?" Roxas joked.

"I'm done!" Axel exclaimed.

"Can I read it?" Roxas said.

"I guess so." Axel shrugged. "It's not _The Raven _or anything like that, so don't judge it too harshly."

"I won't." Roxas smiled, taking the spiral from the redhead.

Looking down on the spiral, Roxas saw Axel's usual untidy handwriting. But as he went down the page, the writing grew neater, as if Axel felt the need to change his handwriting as the poem progressed.

_I don't know how to explain_

_These thoughts that I feel._

_But maybe as time grows older,_

_These wounds will fade and heal._

_Those things you always told me,_

_I know I won't forget._

_And sometimes I hear your voice_

_When I cannot see you yet._

_I know that this is wrong, _

_But I feels so very right._

_I long to hold you in my arms_

_Long into the night._

_I don't care what they say._

_They couldn't understand_

_What's going on inside my head._

_I tell you when I've planned._

_I know that I'll see you tomorrow_

_And every day after that._

_But I don't know what you'll say._

_Will you leave me just like that?_

Roxas read the poem twice, reading Axel's words carefully. It was almost like the redhead knew what Roxas was thinking. Axel obviously put a lot of thought into the poem. And it was obviously something that he felt very strongly about. Roxas thought he had an idea of what it was, but couldn't be sure.

"What do you think?" Axel asked as Roxas handed back the spiral.

"That's really good, Axel!" Roxas nodded.

"Really?" Axel seemed surprised. "I thought it seemed to go on and on."

"But it's very good." Roxas said. "I didn't think you liked writing?"

"I thought I'd give it a shot." Axel shrugged. "I don't really like it, though."

"If you say so." Roxas said. "But you're a really good writer."

Their conversation was interrupted when Riku and Sora walked up to the deck.

"You guys ready?" Sora asked.

"Do we look ready, my idiot brother?" Roxas raised his eyebrows.

"Well, get ready." Riku said.

* * *

Axel was sleeping soundly on the sand when an oversized beach-ball hit him on the head, causing the redhead to wake up. He looked over at everyone else at saw Demyx running toward him.

"Demyx…" Axel hissed.

"It was Riku!" Demyx exclaimed.

"No, it wasn't." came Riku's loud voice.

Axel got up off the sand and walked into the water, where Roxas was boogie boarding.

"What's up, Rox?" Axel called.

"You need your board, Axel." Roxas reminded the redhead.

"Right…"

Axel retrieved his dolphin boogie board and joined Roxas in the water, strapping it on his right wrist as he walked.

"You don't think the salt will hurt our ears, do you?" Roxas asked.

"Well," Axel said. "If our ears turn green and fall off, we'll know why."

"I'm guessing that's a no." Roxas said.

After riding a few waves, Roxas and Axel dropped their boards off on shore and returned to the water.

"So we have the same classes next term, huh?" Roxas said.

"I think so." Axel hadn't given much thought to the new term since arriving at the beach.

Roxas dove under the water, spinning around in circles. When he surfaced, Axel said, "So now what?"

"We swim!" Roxas exclaimed.

"You've been told this, I'm sure, but you're a lot like Sora." Axel smiled at the blonde.

"Not that much like Sora." Roxas said.

"Yes, you are." Axel said.

"After dinner, let's go swimming, ok?" Roxas said, blue eyes full of excitement.

"Whatever you say." Axel smiled.

* * *

"Demyx, will you stop changing the channels every 5 seconds?"

Riku, Demyx and Axel were in the living room, watching TV. Axel was waiting for Roxas to get back from the bookstore with Kairi and Naminè so they could go swimming. As the result, the redhead was waiting very anxiously for the blonde in his swimming trunks on the couch.

"What's the rush, Axel?" Riku asked. "Got a date?"

"Not with Roxas." Axel said unblushingly.

"You've been spending a lot of time together." Riku said. "Is there something that we should know about?"

"Nope." Axel said.

"If you say so." Riku didn't believe a word Axel was saying.

The back door slid open and Roxas walked in the door with Kairi and Naminè.

"About time." Axel said. "You said you'd be back half an hour ago."

"Kairi wouldn't leave." Roxas said. "Give me a second to get ready, ok?"

"I guess I have to." Axel said.

Roxas left for their room. Demyx was still flipping through random channels.

"Demyx, will you cut it out?" Riku yelled.

"But I'm bored." Demyx sighed.

"Go find Sora." Axel said.

"But we don't know where he is." Demyx protested.

"He's in his room." Riku said.

Demyx scowled, but left. Roxas appeared a moment later, decked in blue cameo swim trunks.

"Ready now?" Roxas asked.

'I've been ready." Axel said, "See you in a bit, Riku."

The two left, leaving Riku alone. Sora came out a few minutes later.

"Roxas and Axel went swimming." Riku informed him.

"I kinda like the fact that my brother is interested in someone." Sora said.

"Why's that?" Riku frowned.

"I don't have to deal with him very much." Sora said.

"But you always seem to be looking out for him." Riku pointed out.

"That's because I care about him. I mean, I have to. He's my little brother." Sora shrugged. "He's just annoying. Maybe that's because we're twins. I dunno."

"I always wanted a little brother." Riku said.

"You want Roxas?" Sora asked. "You can keep him.

"I think your mom would be mad." Riku hesitated for a minute before asking, "Is your mom still mad about us going out?"

"She doesn't like it, but she doesn't rant about it like she used to." Sora said.

"She's gotten better. "Riku observed.

Sora nodded.

"She'll have to get used to the fact that Roxas is gay, too."

"She won't take that well." Riku said.

Sora leaned back against the couch and said, "Well, that's her problem."

**I know Axel's poem doesn't make much sense. he'll write one more story, if all goes to plan. review please?**

**next chapter: back to twilight town**


	19. Back to Twilight Town

**Disclaimer: Still don't own KH. I'd love to, though. Then i could make Axel and Roxas go out for real! how awesome would that be?!**

**It's Mika-chan! I have a rather sad announcement...no, i'm not ending this story. nothing in the world would make me do that. i failed the algebra 2 cres and as the result, my mom took away my laptop. i do all of my writing on my laptop, so this is a ginormous blow to me. i am now forced to do my writing at school during lunch, where i only get half an hour. and you all know that is no where near enough time. my point is, updates are going to be slow until i get my laptop back. just be patient with ne, please? i really don't want this to be happening. wow. i talked a lot. let the deadly tale continue!**

"Roxas, get your lazy ass up!"

The blonde awoke to the sound of his brother yelling from down in the kitchen. Roxas couldn't see why Sora had to wake him up so early. Really, they always got to school on time, so why bother rushing? After getting dressed, Roxas grabbed his backpack and went down to the kitchen to find Sora eating a bowl of cereal.

"Axel called, by the way." Sora said through a spoonful of cereal.

"Why didn't he call me?" Roxas asked, grabbing a breakfast bar.

"He didn't want to wake you up." Sora said.

"What did he want?"

"Just to say that he would be coming over later." Sora said.

"He always comes over." The blonde leaned against the counter. "Why would he call about today?"

"I guess he wanted to be formal about it." Sora shrugged.

The doorbell rang, which meant that Axel was probably outside.

"At least he doesn't barge in." Roxas smiled as he went to let the redhead inside.

"He's not Demyx, Roxas." Sora said.

Roxas opened the door and found Axel standing on the doorstep.

"Why'd you call?"

"Just wanted to be polite." Axel shrugged, walking inside.

"Almost ready, Sora?" Roxas asked his twin.

"Just need to put my dishes away." Sora said.

5 minutes later, the three of them were walking down the street to the school. Kairi, Naminè, Riku and Demyx had already left.

"So what are we gonna do after school?" Sora asked.

"I dunno." Roxas shrugged.

"I was hoping I could steal Roxas from you, Sora." Axel said. "We were going to go hang out at the mall today."

"Sounds good to me." Sora said. "Are you sure there's nothing going on between you two?"

"Nothing at all." Roxas said.

"If you say so." Sora said. "I'm going to the movies with Riku."

"Just make sure you don't run into Larxene or Demyx." Axel warned. "They're going to the movies, too."

"Thanks for the warning." Sora said. "I have no intention of running into the devil that Demyx calls his girlfriend."

* * *

Block one was rather boring for the redhead. Though he had Roxas in every class, he just couldn't sit through Biology and stay awake. Second block wasn't so bad. Computers; Axel's favourite time consuming possession. Their second block class was devoted entirely to computers. The class was supposed to be making a web site on a topic of their choice. Roxas was doing, of course, Final Fantasy VII. Axel, on the other hand, was doing his on his favourite bands.

"Do you ever do anything that isn't music related?" Roxas asked.

"Not really." Axel said with a shrug.

"I should have figured." Roxas said. "So, are we really gonna hang out at the mall after school?"

"I know you want to be as far away from Sora as you can." The redhead replied.

"You know me too well." Roxas smiled as he typed in Vincent's bio page.

"But there's still the question of what we will be looking for." Axel said.

"We're actually shopping?" the blonde looked at Axel in surprise.

"But of course, my lovely little Roxas." Axel smiled.

"And we are shopping for…?"

"_I_ would like to look for some new music. I need a new Within Temptation album and I heard that AFI just came out with a movie." Axel said.

"I guess I'll look for some music, too." Roxas said. He looked over at Axel's computer screen and saw that the redhead was making a page for a strange band called Dir en Grey.

"Who are they?"

Axel stared at the blonde incredulously.

"You've never heard of Dir en Grey?"

"No…"

Axel pulled out his iPod and jammed his headphones into the blonde's ears.

"Axel!"

"Roxas!"

"We'll get in trouble."

"Just listen, ok?"

After waiting for a moment, Roxas heard guitars starting, followed by drumming and a horrible screeching sound.

"What in hell is that?"

"_Clever Sleazoid_." Axel said.

"Do they have anything…quieter?" Roxas asked.

"Hold on a sec…"

After another moment of silence, Roxas heard a piano playing. Then a few seconds later, the same voice could be heard. This time, the words seemed more beautiful, more sincere, and maybe more…sad.

"It's _Ain't Afraid to Die_." Axel said. "It's what I listen to when I feel like crying sometimes."

"It's so pretty…" Roxas said.

"The last half is the best part." Axel said.

Axel was right. After a few seconds of silence, guitars and basses came in. After repeating the chorus, the vocalist started singing words with what sounded like small children in the background. Even though he couldn't understand the words, Roxas could tell that the words really meant something, that they were trying to say something in a language of their own.

"It sounds so nice." Roxas said.

"Doesn't it, though?" Axel nodded, taking the headphones out of the blonde's ears and twisting the cord neatly around the music player.

"I didn't think you listened to stuff like that." Roxas frowned.

'I listen to nearly everything as long as it's rock." The redhead said, returning to his computer.

"That makes absolutely no sense, but ok." Roxas shrugged.

After Computers, the pair made their way to their next class: World War II.

"I swear to God, I'm going to murder my mother." Axel hissed, sinking into a chair next to Roxas.

"Patricide is illegal, Axel." Roxas told him, as though the redhead didn't already know. "But over what?"

"She made me take this class." Axel glared.

"Come on, Axel." Roxas looked at the redhead with ocean blue eyes. "This'll be fun!"

"Learning about Nazis and psychopathic fascists?" Axel raised his eyebrows. "I think not."

"Just give it a shot." Roxas said. "At least don't switch out. It'll be boring with no one to talk to."

Axel sighed and said, "I'll suffer through it just so you'll have someone to talk to."

"Yea!!" Roxas cheered.

"But if it gets too hard, I'm leaving." Axel said.

"No you won't." Roxas said.

"Oh?" Axel looked at the blonde.

"I'll drag you here every day if I have to." Roxas said.

The bell rang, signalling the start of class. Roxas and Axel were given easily 30 papers each, something Axel didn't like in the least.

"I can tell that I'm gonna need about 60 binders for this class." Axel said as he left the classroom with Roxas an hour and a half later.

"I'm not gonna bring everything to class if that's the case." Roxas said. "Do we have first lunch?"

"Yep." Axel said. "And so does everyone else."

"Then we'll have people to talk to." Roxas said.

"Obviously." Axel said, twisting his index finger around the chain on his cargo pants.

A few minutes later, the redhead and blonde were outside the cafeteria, lunch in hand. Upon reaching their usual table, they noticed that Demyx and Naminè were missing.

"Where are Demyx and Namiè?" Axel asked, sitting down at the table between Roxas and Kairi.

"Demyx and Naminè will be coming down later." Kairi explained.

"What are they doing?" Roxas asked through a bite of his apple.

"They had to stay behind for something." Riku shrugged. "I have no idea."

"You're really informed, Riku." Axel rolled his eyes.

"Aren't I?" Riku smiled.

"Axel, how did your mom take your pierced ears?" Sora asked. "Mom went ballistic."

"She took it rather well." Axel nodded. "I think she was sort of expecting it, ya know?" he turned to the blonde and said, "What did your mom do?"

"She didn't think I'd get it done." Roxas said. "She said I was turning out like Sora."

"Apparently I'm not a good role model for Roxie." Sora said.

"What did I tell you about calling me that?" Roxas glared at his brother, fire burning in his eyes.

"But it sounds so cute!" Kairi said.

"But I hate it." Roxas said, eyes still fixed on his twin. "It makes me sound like I'm 5 years old."

"But I can call you-" Axel was about to say.

"Shut it, Axel." Roxas hissed, punching the redhead in the arm.

"Why can't I call you that?" Axel asked.

"Because I said so." Roxas said.

"You're a little edgy today, Roxas." Riku said. "You ok?"

"I'm fine, Riku." Roxas said. "I just want people to call me Roxas and that's it."

* * *

"Roxas! Axel's here!"

The blonde had been playing Final Fantasy VII when his twin called him from down in the kitchen. Roxas sighed and turned off his computer, not bothered about saving since he had beaten the game about 10 times. Walking downstairs, he found Axel conversing with Sora in the kitchen.

"Ready to go?" the redhead asked as Roxas reached them.

"I didn't expect you here this early." Roxas said truthfully.

"Well, I need to tell you something." Axel said, looking depressed.

"What is it?" Roxas asked.

"I'll tell you on the way." Axel said. "See ya later, Sora!"

"See ya." Sora said.

Axel followed Roxas out the front door and down the streets of Twilight Town.

"So what is it?" Roxas asked.

Axel paused before saying, "I'm not sure I want to tell you yet."

"Come on, Axel." Roxas said. "You know you can tell me anything."

"I guess so." Axel said, emerald green eyes looking dejected. "You'll find out eventually."

"You aren't dying, are you?" Roxas asked, hoping that this wasn't the case.

"Of course not." Axel said, managing to smile a little.

"Then what is it?" Roxas asked, wondering what could possibly make Axel seem so miserable.

Axel sighed, obviously not wanting to tell Roxas what he had to say. But he knew that he couldn't avoid telling the blonde. He looked into Roxas' cerulean eyes and said, "I think I'm moving."

**:ducks under table and looks at rotten fruit being thrown overhead: hey, this isn't even HALF as cliffy as my future chapters are going to be! you guys will be ready to slaughter me! but please don't. then you won't be able to read this story anymore. review please:attempts to crawl out from table, but is forced to retreat due to a large number of fruti being lobbed overhead:**

**next chapter: axel's explanation**


	20. At the mall

**Disclaimer: KH belongs to Square Enix. What does that tell you?**

**It's Mika-chan! I didn't expect quite a reaction that i got, but ok! Thanks to Rikku Madara Uchiha for providing me with a bullet proof vest. I'm going to need it later. I thought of a new plot, and i added a character! I hope everyone knows who he is. it will be obvious in the next chapter, trust me. you get a hint at the very end of this chapter. if you figure it out from that, you'll see where i'm going. Let the deadly tale continue!**

"You're moving?" Roxas stared at the redhead in surprise.

"I _think _I'm moving." Axel said, emphasizing the word 'think'

"When did you find this out?" Roxas asked.

"Before I came over to your house." Axel said. "Apparently, I have a twin brother that I didn't know about. He didn't know either."

"What about him?" Roxas asked, equally as shocked as Axel on the fact that he had a twin brother.

"I think I'm moving in with him." Axel said, looking very depressed.

"Where does he live?" Roxas asked, hoping with every fibre of his being that he was still living in Twilight Town, though this probably wasn't the case.

"Traverse Town." Axel said.

"But you just moved from Traverse Town!" Roxas exclaimed feeling tears come to his eyes. "I don't want you to go just yet."

"Believe me, Rox." Axel said. "I don't want to go either." He paused and said, "But I'm not sure I'm even moving yet. Maybe he's coming here, I dunno." He looked into Roxas' ocean blue eyes and said, "But I promise I'll come and see you guys."

"But I won't see you here." Roxas said softly.

"I don't have any other choice." Axel said. "I just thought I should let you know. You know I don't want to move away from you, Roxas."

Roxas said nothing. Why was Axel being taken away from him? And so soon? In the months since Axel had moved to Twilight Town, Roxas had grown very close to the redhead. It was almost like they were brothers at this point.

"Hey, it's not like you'll never see me again." Axel said, trying to smile a little. "I'll come and visit you. Maybe I'll even come up during summer vacation."

"But I still don't want you to move." Roxas wished that he didn't sound like a whiny little kid. But that's how he felt at the moment.

"Me neither, Roxie." Axel said.

"Roxie?" Roxas frowned, looking at the redhead.

"Just another nickname I came up with." Axel shrugged. "Come on, let's go. If I am moving, which I'd better not be, I want to spend as much time with you that I can."

Roxas nodded in agreement. Together, they walked to the mall and into FYE.

"So who's older?" Roxas asked.

"Hmm?" Axel, in the rock section, hadn't heard the blonde.

"Who is older?" Roxas repeated his question. "You or your brother?"

"I have no idea." Axel said. "I just found out I _had _a brother."

"But don't you feel weird knowing that you have a twin?" Roxas asked, eyes searching for cds from Metallica.

"It's a little weird, but I guess I can get used to it." Axel said. "Maybe it's because my best friend is a twin, so I know what it's like already."

"How would you know?" Roxas asked, though he was smiling at the redhead. "You _just _found out that you're a twin."

"But I've seen the way you and Sora act around each other." Axel shrugged. "I guess I'm using you two as a model of what we're supposed to be like. I'm sure he doesn't know what it's like either."

"Your twin, you mean?" Roxas was sure he understood what Axel was saying.

"Yeah." Axel said. "I'm just mad that mom didn't tell me before now."

"Do you know why she didn't tell you?" Roxas asked, now looking for the Bullet for my Valentine cds.

"She says she'll explain when I see him." Axel said. "I'm kinda nervous about it, actually.

"Because you've never met him before?" Roxas assumed.

"Exactly." Axel nodded.

"I'd feel the same way." Roxas said. "Well, I know my twin, so I can't really relate to what you're feeling…"

"But you know what I'm talking about." Axel said, looking for the Green Day cds. "You know what it's like being a twin."

"Obviously." Roxas said. "As much as I hate Sora…" he faced Axel and said, "I'm sure you two will get along ok. I mean, it's not like he's a mass murderer."

Axel smiled and said, "I guess that's true."

"It would be really weird if he moved here." Roxas said. "One Axel is bad enough."

"Come on, Rox." Axel rolled his eyes. "I'm not as bad as Demyx."

"No one can be as bad as Demyx." Roxas said.

"So what are we going to do after this?" Axel asked.

"I dunno." Roxas shrugged. "When do you have to be back home?"

"Before 8." Axel said.  
"Are you all done here?" the blonde asked.

"Yep." Axel said.

After paying for their music, the two went down to the food court to hang out.

"So what now?" Roxas asked the redhead, who was looking around the mall.

"We sit." Axel smiled.

"Never would've guessed." Roxas rolled his eyes.

"Wanna go walk around?" Axel looked at the blonde.

"Outside?" Roxas frowned. "I guess so."

They left the mall and walked around outside. When they arrived at the clock tower, Axel said, "Remember when you met me here so we could go to Riku's?"

Roxas nodded.

"We were watching movies at his house, right?"

"Yep." Axel said. "That's when…"

But the redhead didn't finish his sentence. Roxas stared at him in confusion.

"When you what?"

"It's nothing." Axel said quickly.

"If you're sure…" Roxas said suspiciously.

"That was fun." Axel said. "You fell asleep halfway through it, remember?"

"Did not." Roxas said.

"Did too!" Axel protested.

"And then I showed you around Twilight Town." Roxas remembered.

"Yeah…" Axel said, sounding like he was in another place.

"You sound far off, Axel." Roxas said. "Are you ok?"

"I just want to stay here." Axel said, looking sadly at the blonde. "If I move back to Traverse Town, I might forget everything here."

"You'd better not forget me." Roxas said teasingly.

"I'll never forget you, Roxas." Axel said. "People don't forget their best friends."

"I didn't know you could sound like this, Axel." The blonde said, taken aback by Axel's sudden behaviour.

"You don't know a lot about me, Rox." Axel said as they sat down on the steps in front of the clock tower.

"Same." Roxas said. "Maybe we should tell each other? Since, ya know, you could me moving."

"There are some things I don't want anyone to know." Axel said. "But I guess I can tell you some things."

"And I guess I can do the same." Roxas agreed.

After a moment of silence, Roxas asked, "So who goes first?"

"I guess I can." Axel said. "Back when I was in Traverse Town, I was the only one in my school who listened to bands like AFI and Disturbed."

"What does that have to do with anything?" Roxas frowned.

"I just thought it was weird." Axel shrugged. "What about you?"

"When I was little, no one would talk to me." Roxas said.

"Really?" Axel looked amazed. "Why would anyone not want to talk to you, Roxie?"

"I dunno." Roxas said. "I guess everyone thought I was weird. They talked to Sora, but not me."

"People talk to you now, don't they?" Axel asked.

"Obviously." Roxas laughed. "I mean, you're talking to me, aren't you?"

"I guess so." Axel said with a smile.

"So now what?" Roxas asked.

Axel was about to answer when his cell phone rang. Rolling his emerald green eyes, he pulled his phone out of his pocket and answered the call.

"Yo, it's Axel…yeah…he is?" Axel looked at Roxas in confusion. "So he's here? So I'm not…that's not fair!" Axel looked positively furious at this point. "Why do I have to meet him first? I'm not nervous, mom…fine. See ya in a bit."

Axel put his phone back in his pocket.

"He's at home." Axel said to a very confused Roxas.

"Your twin?"

Axel nodded.

"Are you supposed to head home?" Roxas asked.

"Yeah…" Axel said.

"So maybe you're not moving?" Roxas said hopefully.

"I hope not." Axel said.

They left the clock tower and headed home. When Roxas turned at his driveway, Axel kept walking ahead to his house. When he reached his house, he walked into the kitchen and found a tall boy around his age leaning against the wall. His long red hair was tied back in a ponytail and grey-blue eyes looked Axel up and down. That's when Axel realized it. This had to be his twin.

**please don't shoot me. :hides under table: I hope the cliffy isn't so bad...sorry it's so short. i think the next chapter is going to be longer. let me know what you think?**

**next chapter: Who is the mysterious redhead? and Axel's past is revealed!**


	21. Enter Reno!

**Disclaimer: Don't own KH. If I did, Axel and Roxas would be together and Kairi wouldn't exist. **

**It's Mika-chan! My thanks extend to my reviewers! i really didn't plan on Axel having a twin, but I thought "hey, maybe it will work" and i certianly hope it does. Is it safe for me to come out under the table or is fruit still being thrown at me? Let the deadly tale continue!**

"So you're Axel, huh?"

Axel looked at his twin and said, "You know my name. What's yours?"

"Reno."

"That's weird." Axel said.

"Like you have a really common name." Reno smiled. "Mom never told you that you had a twin, did she?"

"Nope." Axel shook his head, setting his CDs on the kitchen table. "And I guess Aunt Sharon didn't tell you about me either."

"Not a thing." Reno said.

"Where's mom?" Axel asked.

Reno had opened his mouth to answer when the back door opened and their mother walked inside.

"Mom, what's going on?" Axel asked. "Did you forget to tell me that I had a twin brother?"

"I didn't feel that it was important." She said.

"That we happen to have a twin living hundreds of miles away?" Reno raised his eyebrows.

"Could you at least explain what's going on?" Axel said. "Maybe things will make a _little _more sense."

"I don't know if that's possible, Axel." Reno said. "I'm confused enough as it is."

"Reno, did Sharon tell you that your father died?" she asked.

Reno nodded.

"When your father died and I had you two, I didn't really think that I could handle both of you." She said. "And from what Sharon says about you, Reno, I know I couldn't have."

"So you drop Reno off at Aunt Sharon's?" Axel's emerald green eyes were now slits. "Why is he even here?" he looked at his twin and said, "Not that I haven't enjoyed meeting you."

"Sharon's new job is going to cause her to move frequently." She said. "She thought it would be better if Reno stayed in one high school. I thought I could handle both of you by now, so I said I'd take him back."

"So I leave my friends and my boyfriend back in Traverse Town so I can live here? When I should have been living here all along?" Reno raised his eyebrows, looking exactly like Axel did when he got mad at something.

Axel had heard enough. He left the kitchen and walked up to his room, closing the door behind him. He walked across the room to his CD player and put in his new Avenged Sevenfold CD. About halfway through _The Beast and the Harlot_, he heard someone knock at his door.

"Axel, its Reno. Can I come in?"

"Sure."

The door opened and Reno walked inside.

"I have to stay here for tonight. We're going to set up my room tomorrow." Reno said. "You don't have a problem, do you?"

'It's ok with me." Axel said, turning off Avenged Sevenfold. "We can get to know each other more."

"I guess that's ok with me." Reno said with a smile.

"Hey, Reno?" Axel said. "Did you say you have a boyfriend?"

Reno nodded.

"Do you have a problem with that?"

"Not at all." Axel said. "I'm gay."

"For who?" Reno asked.

"My best friend." Axel said, blushing.

"Really?" Reno said with a smile. "Does he know this?"

"I think he suspects it." Axel said. "He knows I'm gay, if that's what you mean."

"Cloud figured it out on his own." Reno said, joining Axel on his bed. "Then we started going out." He looked at Axel and said, "You _are _going to tell him, aren't you?"

"I guess so." Axel said. "I thought I was going to live with you and Aunt Sharon, so I told him that I was moving. He's going to be so happy when I tell him I'm not moving."

"Did you tell him that you had a long lost brother?" Reno said. "Cloud couldn't believe it when I told him."

"He couldn't believe it." Axel said. "Neither could I, truth be told."

"Neither did I." Reno said. "So, should I be worried about anything at school tomorrow?"

"Let me see your schedule." Axel said.

Reno grabbed his backpack, which was by the door, and fished out his schedule. Returning to the bed, he gave it to Axel, who proceeded to looking it over.

"Every class together." Axel said.

"I think Mom did it that way on purpose." Reno said.

"I'm still pissed at her." Axel said. "She didn't even mention that I had a brother!"

"I didn't either." Reno sighed. "Well, at least we know that the other exists, huh?"

* * *

Axel woke up a little earlier than his usual time, not knowing how hard it would be to wake up Reno. Reno was asleep on the floor by Axel's bed and Axel had to remember to step over the other redhead so he wouldn't squash him. Axel threw his pillow at Reno and said, "Wake up, Reno."

"Come on…" Reno grumbled sleepily.

"It's a drag, I know." Axel said. "But I get up around this time every morning. Got it memorized?"

"Yeah, yeah." Reno groggily sat up and rubbed his eyes awake. "What time is it?"

"6." Axel said.

"6?" Reno looked at his brother in a confused manner.

"It usually takes me a while to get started." Axel said as he headed for the bathroom, leaving Reno alone.

Reno looked around Axel's room, trying to figure out more about his brother. It seemed that they liked the same type of music and movies. Posters of bands like Slipknot, Dir en Grey, Evanescence, Within Temptation and Three Days Grace covered the walls. On the desk in the corner of the room was a CD player. By the CD player was a huge stack of CDs. Reno had never seen anyone with so many CDs in his life. His computer was on the desk as well as a large printer.

After looking around Axel's room, Reno decided that he wouldn't make Axel late for school, though he had a feeling that Axel wouldn't care one way or another. Digging through his suitcase with his clothes, the redhead found his favourite pair of cargo pants, AFI T-shirt and Converse All-Stars. As Reno was tying his shoes, Axel decided to walk into the room.

"You're not dressed yet?" Reno asked, looking at Axel who was still dressed in his gym shorts.

"No…" Axel frowned. "Should I be?"

"I dunno." Reno shrugged. "I guess I'm gonna have to get used to a new morning schedule."

"Oh, we're gonna meet Roxas and Sora so we can go to school." Axel said as he pulled on his jeans.

"Which is your lover?" Reno asked with a smile.

"Roxas." Axel said, blushing slightly. "Just don't tell him, ok? I'm gonna tell him myself."

"Not a problem." Reno said. "Which is Sora and which is Roxas?"

"Roxas is the blonde." Axel said.

"I guess that's easy to remember." Reno said.

* * *

Roxas trudged downstairs, still depressed about the fact that Axel was moving. Why did Axel have to leave so soon? Roxas wasn't even sure about his feelings for him yet. Walking into the kitchen, the blonde found his brother eating breakfast.

"You ok?" Sora asked.

"I'm fine." Roxas said, though he knew it wasn't true.

"You sure?" Sora raised his eyebrows.

"I'm fine." Roxas repeated. "Axel's coming over, right?"

"Doesn't he always?" Sora said through a spoonful of cereal.

A knock at the door signalled that Axel had arrived. Roxas walked to the front door and found the redhead standing in the doorway. But with him was another redhead that Roxas hadn't seen before.

"Is this your twin?" Roxas asked.

"Roxas, this is Reno." Axel said. "And vice versa."

"So _this _is Roxas." Reno said.

Axel shot his twin a warning look, but said nothing.

"Are you ready yet?"

"Not yet." Roxas said. "Did you guys have breakfast?"

"You ask me the same question every day." Axel rolled his eyes as he and Reno walked into the kitchen.

"Hey Axel." Sora said. He looked at Reno and said, "Who is this and why does he look like Axel?"

"Sora, this is Reno." Axel said, feeling he might as well get used to introducing his brother. "And vice versa." He turned to Sora and said, "Didn't Roxas tell you already?"

"Tell me what?" Sora frowned.

"It turns out that Reno here is my long lost twin." Axel said.

"It seems so weird when you put it like that." Reno cringed.

"So does this mean you're not moving?" Roxas looked at Axel hopefully.

"Nope." Axel smiled.

'Yes!" Roxas jumped up in delight.

"_Some_one's happy." Reno said.

Roxas flushed slightly and changed the subject by turning to Sora and saying, "Ready yet?"

"Yeah." Sora put his dirty cereal bowl in the sink, grabbed his backpack and headed out the door with everyone else.

"So, Reno, why are you living here now?" Roxas asked.

"It's kind of a long story." Reno said.

"Basically, mom didn't think that she could handle both of us, so she dropped Reno off at Aunt Sharon's." Axel said.

"But she got a new job that requires her to move around a lot." Reno continued. "She wanted me to stay in school, so I'm living with mom and Axel."

"I bet you guys are pissed." Sora said. "Not knowing that the other existed."

"Yeah." Axel and Reno said together.

"God, you two even _sound _alike." Sora said.

"So do you and Roxas." Axel pointed out.

"We don't sound that much alike." Roxas said.

"But you sound a little alike." Reno said.

"But you two sound _exactly _alike." Roxas said.

"Whatever you say…" Reno rolled his eyes.

"What are we doing in Computers today, Roxas?" Axel asked.

"Working on our web sites." Roxas said.

"Sounds like a blast." Sora said.

Once they got to school, everyone went their separate ways. Sora went to find Naminè and head off to American Studies. Reno, Roxas and Axel made their way to Biology, where they were forced to suffer through more notes. Reno hadn't missed much since they had started a new unit the day before. Today they were taking notes on Evolution, which bored Axel out of his mind. The whole class bored him out of his mind. What was a guy to do?

After Biology the three headed to Computers, where they continued to work on their websites. Axel and Roxas took their usual seats in the top corner and Reno, not knowing anyone, decided to follow them.

"I thought you were doing Final Fantasy VII?" Axel frowned, looking at the blonde's screen.

"I have to do one on _Hellsing_ now." Roxas said. "Someone took mine."

"Is someone doing _Star Wars_?" Reno asked.

"I don't think so." Axel said.

"Alright!" Reno got to work on his Web Page.

"Why are you doing _Hellsing_, Roxas?" Axel asked, adding music videos on his page from YouTube.

"Because I like _Hellsing_, Axel." Roxas rolled his cerulean blue eyes. "You might like it."

"I've heard of it." Reno said.

"Do you watch it?" Roxas asked.

"I read up to book 4, but we didn't have any copies of the others at the library." Reno said. "I've been reading them online now."

"But do you watch it?" Roxas repeated his question.

"The OVAs." Reno smiled.

"The regular episodes are shit, aren't they?" Roxas said.

"Aren't they though?" Reno rolled his grey-blue eyes to the ceiling.

"Ok, ok, I get it." Axel sighed. "I'll watch it sometime."

"I'm dragging you over to my house sometime." Roxas said. "I have the episodes on DVD."

"I thought you said you don't like the episodes?" Axel smiled, putting his headphones in his ears so he could listen to his iPod.

"They haven't released the OVAs yet." Roxas said.

Reno watched Roxas and Axel conversing with each other. It was obvious that Axel liked Roxas. And it was equally obvious that Roxas liked Axel. But did they know that one liked the other?

**Since Axel isn't moving, I'm assuming it's safe to come out? I love Reno, so i figured I'd introduce him as Axel's twin! like so many other people do...whatever! I'm starting a new AkuRoku band camp story, but i only have about 2 pages done. Speaking of which, I've written over a hundred pages for Roulette! Yea! Anyway...review?**

**next chapter: a game of soccer? with demyx?! **


	22. Demyx's movie idea

**Disclaimer: Don't own KH. I only own the plot.**

**It's Mika-chan! Sorry for the wait! I had serious writer's block. i changed the plot a bit for this chapter. there won't be a DDR competition in this chapter. Maybe another chapter, but not this one. There isn't much for this chapter. I just needed something. Let the deadly tale continue!**

While the rest of their WWII class was watching a movie on the Beer Hall Putsch, Axel was deep in thought. Hearing about a relatively younger Adolf Hitler didn't interest the redhead nearly as much as it usually did. Axel's thoughts were on the blonde boy sitting next to him, trying to stay awake. Axel knew that he loved Roxas. He felt that Roxas was much, _much_ more than his best friend. But did the blue-eyed boy feel the same about him? Axel felt relieved, knowing that Reno wouldn't say anything to Roxas. Since Reno had a boyfriend, he knew how it felt to be in love with someone of the same gender. Axel realized that he would have to tell Roxas the truth soon. The blonde already knew that Axel was gay. The redhead had told him after the homophobia debate in English. But what Axel didn't tell him was that he was gay for the blonde. Axel half wished that he hadn't moved to Twilight Town. If he had stayed in Traverse Town, he wouldn't be in this mess. On the other hand, the redhead was grateful that he had moved. If he hadn't met Roxas, his life would have been empty forever. Well, maybe not _forever_, but a lot longer than if he had moved to Twilight Town.

Reno's snoring brought Axel back to reality. Looking to his right, Axel saw his twin with his head on his desk, deeply asleep. Axel nudged his elbow into Reno's ribcage, waking him up.

"What?"

"You started snoring." Axel said.

"What's going on?" Reno asked groggily, sitting up in his chair.

"I'm not paying attention." Axel admitted sheepishly.

"Obviously." Reno said with a smile. ""You would have noticed that your lover is asleep."

And sure enough, when Axel looked to his left, he found Roxas asleep, head in his arms.

"Were you thinking about Roxas?" Reno asked.

"Yeah…" Axel flushed slightly.

"No need to get embarrassed." Reno said.

"I'm not embarrassed." Axel said defensively.

"When are you going to ask him out?" Reno asked, pulling out a sheet of paper so he could draw.

"I need to find out if he likes me back." Axel said.

"Well, just ask him." Reno said.

"That's too obvious." Axel rolled his emerald green eyes.

"Hey, it's a suggestion." Reno shrugged. "I'm just saying you should do it soon."

"I know, I know." Axel said. "I guess I'm waiting for the right moment."

"Geez, Axel!" Reno exclaimed. "It's not like you're proposing!"

"It's a serious thing." Axel said. "I want to make sure I do it right."

* * *

The last class of the day was always boring for Axel and Roxas. How could you hope to stay awake through World History? Reno obviously found the class just as boring. Halfway through the notes on the Roman Empire, he had fallen asleep. Roxas and Axel decided not to wake him up, since he would probably yell at them if they did.

"Axel, did Demyx tell you that he's planning on making some more movies?" Roxas asked.

"You'd better be kidding me, Rox." Axel said.

Roxas shook his head.

"He wants to do another Nazi movie."

"I thought the Nazi soap opera was bad enough." Axel rolled his eyes. "And we hear enough about Nazis in WWII."

"Well, we're meeting at my house after school." Roxas said.

"Sounds fun." Axel said, words dripping with sarcasm.

"Come on, Axel!" Roxas exclaimed. "You can be Himmler again!"

"That _was_ pretty fun." Axel nodded.

"We just need to find someone Naminè can be." Roxas said. "We're keeping our old parts, but we have to add Naminè and Reno in."

"Obviously." Axel said, leaning back in his chair. "Hey, she can be Hitler's secretary, can't she?"

"I didn't think about that." Roxas said. "Then what about Reno?"

"He can be Goering." Axel shrugged.

"Sounds like a plan." Roxas said. "Riku told Demyx to come up with an plot, but you know he won't."

"This is going to be interesting…"

* * *

"Demyx, what in hell made you want to make another movie?"

Everyone was in Sora and Roxas' backyard, discussing the movie. Axel hadn't brought his video-camera, knowing that they wouldn't be making it in the same day. That, and Axel didn't want to drag it around.

"The idea came to me in Stat and Prob." Demyx said.

"So this is the product of you being bored?" Riku crossed his arms in front of his chest.

"Probably." Reno said.

"So what do you have in mind?" Kairi asked. "We're keeping our original parts, right?"

"But Reno and Naminè need parts." Sora pointed out.

"Axel and I decided that Reno could be Goering and Naminè could be Hitler's secretary." Roxas said. "Whatever her name is."

"Sounds fine." Reno said.

Naminè nodded in agreement.

"So, Demyx," Riku said, "Have you thought of a plot yet?"

"I was thinking that there could be a meeting between all the Nazis." Demyx said.

"SS and SA included?" Axel questioned.

"Of course." Demyx said. "Rohem and Himmler would have to be there."

"So when are we actually doing this?" Kairi asked.

"After school tomorrow." Demyx said with a smile.

"And where?" Reno asked.

"Here." Roxas said. "That's where we did the last one."

"Do we still have the Nazi uniforms?" Riku asked.

"We need to make one for Reno." Demyx said.

"Obviously…" Axel rolled his eyes.

"I can try to figure my outfit by myself." Naminè said. "It won't be that hard."

"Just wear whatever Kairi's wearing." Reno said.

"We need to make Reno a swastika armband!" Demyx gasped.

"We have to wear them, Reno." Axel told his twin, who looked rather confused at Demyx's outburst.

"Why?" Reno frowned.

"Because all Nazis have to wear them!" Demyx exclaimed. "Aren't you in a WWII class?"

"With these lunatics." Reno gestured to Axel and Roxas.

"Thanks, Reno." Roxas rolled his eyes.

"Anytime." Reno smiled.

"So are we set?" Riku asked.

"Let's meet here around 4." Sora said. "I think we'll have enough time to make a movie then."

"So it's set!" Demyx exclaimed.

"Well, I'm heading home." Axel said. "Roxas, Reno and I have to do homework on Hitler's rise to power."

"Have fun with that." Kairi said.

Axel smiled and left with Reno. Remembering what the first Nazi movie was like, he had serious doubts about this one.

**Sorry it's so short! I wanted to update this one. review please?**

**next chapter: a video with a bunch of teenagers acting like Nazis. what more could you want?**


	23. Nazis in Twilight Town

**Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts of FFVII. I don't think they'd let me. What do you think? Yes? No?**

**It's Mika-chan! This was a fun chapter to write. It's not like the previous Nazi chapter...I bet you all think I'm a Nazi now, huh? Don't worry, though. I'm not a Nazi. I don't mean to offend anyone by this...oh geez. well, let the deadly tale continue!**

"I feel ridiculous."

Axel and Reno were walking over to Roxas and Sora's house. Both were dressed in brown with a red, black and white swastika armband on their left arm. Much to the annoyance of Reno, Demyx had made the redhead his own swastika armband. Both had tried to do something with their hair so it wouldn't stand up so much. Reno had his ponytail tucked into his jacket, but nothing could be done about Axel's spikes. The twins had tried every hair product that they owned, plus borrowed stuff from Kairi, Naminè and Demyx, but nothing worked. As the result, Axel's fire engine red hair remained the way it usually was.

"It's not so bad." Axel said with a shrug. "I had to do this before."

"I shudder to think about what happened." Reno said with a smile.

"We had to chase Demyx down the street." When Reno looked confused, Axel said, "It's a long story."

"Sounds like it."

When they arrived at their destination, Kairi was outside. She was wearing a red plaid skirt and plain black dress shirt along with open-toed high-heeled shoes.

"Are we late?" Axel asked, swinging his video camera.

"Right on time." Kairi said. "Axel, can't you do anything with your hair?"

"I've tried everything." Axel said. "Nothing works."

"Well, I'm positive Himmler didn't have red spikes coming out of his head." Kairi rolled her eyes as Axel and Reno followed her inside.

"Are we in the basement?" Axel asked, following his brother and Kairi down the steps to the basement.

"More room." Kairi explained.

Everyone was sitting around the ping-pong table, though the net had been removed. The room was made to look like Hitler's bunker and it looked like whoever designed the room did a good job.

"About time!" Riku exclaimed.

"We were trying to flatten Axel's hair." Reno said with a grin.

"Shut it, Reno." Axel said, setting up his camera. "Who's operating it?"

"Naminè." Demyx, Roxas and Sora said together.

"Do you know how to work a video camera?" Axel asked Naminè, who was sitting between Roxas and Demyx.

"Yep." Naminè nodded as she took Axel's camera and got behind the lenses.

"Are we ready then?" Demyx asked.

"Sanity wise?" Reno frowned. "No way."

"I'm starting now." Naminè said.

"So…" Demyx said in his usual Hitler voice, "We have taken the Sudetenland, which countries should we take next?"

"I believe that we should capture the Middle East." Riku said. "There is a lot of oil in the Middle East that can fuel our panzers."

"Then we should capture North Africa." Roxas said. "There is a great abundance of oil there as well."

"Well that's all well and good for oil," Axel said, "But what about other resources?"

"What do you have in mind, Himmler?" Demyx asked, trying to seem professional.

"I was thinking of seizing France, mein Fuhrer." Axel always seemed so mysterious when he was a Nazi. "They have lots of grapes there."

"What use do we have for grapes?" Riku demanded.

"We can use them to make wine." Axel said.

"And get drunk," Reno seemed to read his twin's mind.

"But how will I be able to control the Third Reich when I'm drunk?" Demyx pointed out.

"You won't be getting drunk, mein Fuhrer." Axel said.

"If everyone else gets drunk, then I should be able to get drunk, too." Demyx said.

"Let's move past France." Kairi said. "How about Finland?"

"Why is Eva even here?" Sora wanted to know. "She's not in the Army."

"I told her that she could be here." Demyx said.

"Why don't we try conquering the United States?" Riku suggested.

"What do the Americans have that we don't have?" Roxas asked.

"Space." Riku coolly replied. "Mein Fuhrer, you are always telling us that Germany is too small. Maybe we should consider this action?"

"But how will we fight them?" Demyx pointed out. "The Americans have a very large Army."

"I know that." Riku said.

"Maybe we need to conquer more European countries first." Reno said.

"I like the idea of conquering America, Rohem." Demyx said. "But we need a bigger army." He turned to Axel and said, "Himmler, can you build a bigger Army?"

"Of course, Mein Fuhrer." Axel said. "It will take some time, but it is possible."

"Goebbles, can I trust you to spread the word of a larger Army?" Demyx turned to Sora.

"Consider it done, mein Fuhrer." Sora said with a nod.

"Any other items that we should discuss?" Riku asked.

"I think Gertrude has the list." Demyx said. He raised his voice and called, "Gertrude! Do you have the list?"

Naminè temporarily left the camera to hand Demyx a list and said, "Is this what you were asking for?"

"Yes, it is." Demyx said, taking the blank piece of paper from Naminè.

"Is there anything else?" Naminè asked.

"That will be all." Demyx said.

Naminè retreated behind the camera once more. Demyx looked at the paper and said, "We have yet to discuss the invasion of Russia."

"I was not aware that we were invading Russia." Kairi frowned.

"You did not tell her?" Reno said teasingly. "Mein Fuhrer, you tell Frauline Braun everything. Surely you told her of our plans to invade Russia?"

"Hold your tongue, Goering." Demyx snapped.

"But when is Russia going to be invaded?" Sora asked.

"Not during the winter, I hope." Kairi said. "Russian winters are very harsh."

"That they are." Roxas nodded in agreement.

"I do not plan on invading in the winter." Demyx said, leaning back in his chair.

"If I might make a suggestion, mein Fuhrer." Reno said timidly.

"You may." Demyx said.

"I think that Russia should be invaded in the summer." Reno said.

"So our soldiers can die in the summer heat?" Kairi raised her eyebrows in question. "That's almost as bad as freezing to death."

"Maybe next March." Demyx said. "The snow will be thawing and we can use that to our advantage."

"If you say so." Roxas said.

"Will this be discussed again at the next meeting?" Axel asked.

"Yes, it will." Demyx said.

"Is there anything else that should be mentioned?" Riku asked the group at large.

When no one said anything, Demyx said, "Then this meeting is adjourned."

"And…cut." Naminè said. "Nice job."

"Did you get everything?" Axel asked, checking his video camera.

"Yep." Naminè said.

"Let's get some random shots now." Axel said.

"Why?" Kairi asked as Axel began focusing the camera on Riku.

"Because we have nothing else to do." Axel shrugged.

"Don't get me in it." Reno said.

"Reno, you were taped for how long?" Roxas rolled his eyes. "A few more minutes isn't going to hurt."

"But I like being behind the camera, not in front of it." Reno said.

"Just like Axel." Demyx said.

"Well, duh." Reno said.

"So what are we going to do now?" Riku asked.

"Well, Axel's going camera happy right now…" Roxas said as he took off his swastika armband and threw it to Demyx.

"What am I going to do with this?" Demyx asked.

"Keep it." Roxas said. "I'm not keeping that thing in my room."

"Yeah, if Mom sees that, she'll go ballistic." Sora said.

"But what do we do now?" Axel asked.

"Are you done being camera happy?" Naminè asked.

"I guess so…" Axel said. He looked at Reno and said, "We'd better get home."

"Why?"

"We have to clean out the garage, remember?" Axel reminded his twin.

"Oh, right." Reno said. "See you guys."

Axel and Reno left, walking out through the basement door and around the front yard to the street.

"It wasn't that bad, was it?" Axel said.

"It could've been worse." Reno said. "What happened the first time?"

"I killed Kairi and Demyx with a broom and Roxas stole the broom from me and chased me around the room." Axel said. "Then Demyx stole the broom and started running around the neighbourhood."

"Sounds like something Demyx would do." Reno said with a smile.

"You wouldn't believe the looks we got." Axel said.

"Well, you guys were dressed up as Nazis." Reno shrugged. "What can you say?"

"That Demyx is an idiot?" Axel smiled.

"Too true." Reno nodded.

"Hey, I was thinking about going to the movies with Roxas tomorrow." Axel said. "Wanna come with?"

"Nah." Reno said. "I wouldn't want to ruin your date."

"It's not a date, Reno." Axel said, flushing slightly.

"I'm gonna call Cloud, anyway." Reno said as they reached their house and walked inside.

"Didn't you talk to him yesterday?" Axel frowned.

"No, that was Yuffie." Reno said. "And I talked to Aeris the day before that."

"Whatever you say." Axel said.

He left his brother and made his way up to his room. Taking off his Nazi uniform, he changed back into his regular clothes. Roxas didn't know about Axel's plan yet, but Axel was so sure that it would work…

**I love Axel's idea with the grapes! Anyway, if my story goes as planned, the next chapter will be kinda angst and you'll want to throw fruit at me again. :gets bullet proof vest and hides under table: but i MIGHT add more stuff. I feel like I'm dragging the story out. Anyway, review?**

**next chapter if all goes as planned: someone gets hurt...but who? and how?**


	24. Interlude

**Disclaimer: I don't own KH or FFVII. Or any copyrighted things. I own the plot...does that count?**

**It's Mika-chan! This was an...interesting chapter to write. There will be good things and bad things in this. you really will want to murder me at the end. Even more so than when Axel was supposed to move back to Traverse Town. Shutting up now...anyway, on with the deadly tale!**

Roxas, Axel and Reno were sitting through a movie in WWII. Again. At least they watched a lot of movies in this class. It gave Axel a chance to think. He still had to ask Roxas about going to a movie that night…Axel was pretty sure that Roxas wouldn't say no. But Axel had other plans for that night.

Tonight, he'd do the one thing he'd been waiting to do for what seemed like an eternity. The one thing that Axel knew he should've done when he first met Roxas in English.

He was going to ask him out.

But Axel was nervous about what Roxas would say. The redhead knew that Roxas had no problem with gay people. He said that he didn't care when Axel told him that he was gay. But did Roxas love him that much? Did he love him at all?

Axel looked over at Reno, who was watching the movie with unfocused eyes. He nudged his twin in the ribcage with his elbow, causing Reno to jump a little, but it got his attention.

"I'm gonna do it tonight."

"About time." Reno whispered back to Axel. "How?"

"I dunno." Axel said. "I guess when we're coming back from the movie. Does that sound ok?"

"Better than how I asked Cloud out." Reno said.

"How did you ask Cloud out?" Axel frowned.

"We were in the library, and I told him that I loved him just a _little _too loudly." Reno said. "The whole library heard me."

"I shouldn't be surprised at this." Axel said.

"But I like your way." Reno said.

"I feel like I'm proposing or something." Axel said, blushing slightly.

"Hopefully it'll turn out that way." Reno said.

"Maybe, maybe not." Axel said with a shrug. "I guess Sora and Riku will end up together."

"I can somehow see that happening." Reno said.

Axel looked over at Roxas, who was sleeping on his desk, his ocean blue eyes closed with his head in his arms. What Reno said got Axel thinking. Did he want to spend the rest of his life with Roxas? Of course he did. Axel wouldn't think of any other way. And after meeting Roxas, there was no _way_ the redhead could fall in love with someone else. Sure, they were best friends, but…

Axel hadn't thought about their friendship. If they started dating, their friendship would be in jeopardy. Did Axel want to risk his friendship with Roxas? Well, if Roxas felt the same way about him, then Axel supposed that he could agree. But if he didn't…Axel didn't want to think about it. Axel had given Roxas enough hints. He'd understand if Roxas had listened to the second CD. Axel even told Roxas that he was gay! How much more obvious can you get? Besides coming out and saying, "I'm gay for you." That doesn't really count.

10 minutes later, Roxas woke up just as Hitler started talking about _Deutschland über Alles_. Rubbing his eyes, Roxas looked at the screen, then Axel and said, "What did I miss?"

"Hitler's going on about the purification of Germany." Axel said. "Same old thing."

"Go figure." Roxas rolled his eyes.

They left for lunch 15 minutes later. When they got to their usual lunch table, they noticed that Kairi was reading a book.

"Whatcha reading, Kai?" Reno asked.

"_Twilight_." Kairi said. "Vampires."

In one swift move, Axel lunged toward the book, but Roxas grabbed the redhead by the back of his hoodie, and tried to pull him back. When this didn't work, Roxas wrapped his arms around Axel's waist and tried to reel him in. Roxas felt Axel get tense for a second, then relax again.

"Let Kairi read, Axel." Roxas said.

"But it's about vampires!" Axel exclaimed, allowing himself to be reeled in by the blonde.

"I know, but we have copies in the library." Roxas said.

Axel grabbed Roxas' hand and dragged the blonde up to the library.

"Axel, can't it wait?" Roxas sighed.

"Of course not." Axel said. "It's vampires, Rox!"

5 minutes later they were back at their lunch table, Axel reading his new book.

"Is it good, Axel?" Riku smiled.

"Shhh!" Axel said, peridot eyes glued to his book.

"So what are we gonna do today?" Naminè asked.

"Make a movie?" Demyx suggested.

"No." Sora, Reno and Riku said together.

"Hey, Roxas," Axel looked up from his book and faced the blonde. "Wanna go see a movie?"

"Um…what movie?" Roxas asked.

"I dunno." Axel shrugged. "How about the new Sweeny Todd?"

"Sounds good to me." Roxas said.

"Cool!" Axel said with a smile. "I'll come pick you up around 6:30, ok? The last showing is at 7."

"I can come over to your place." Roxas offered.

"Mom won't let me walk around after dark." Axel said.

"But she lets you drive?" Kairi frowned.

"Mom's weird." Reno rolled his grey eyes.

"Can we go?" Demyx asked.

"No." Axel and Roxas said together.

"Why not?" Demyx wanted to know.

"Because, Demyx," Riku said, "You yell at the characters on the screen while everyone else is trying to watch the movie."

"Do not!" Demyx glared at Riku.

"Whatever you say." Sora rolled his eyes.

* * *

Roxas and Axel were on their way home from the movie, both very excited about it.

"That was good, wasn't it?" Axel said.

"I know!" Roxas replied. "I wouldn't believe that Mrs Lovett would bake the people into pies! That's gross!"

"I was kinda expecting her to do that." Axel said, leaning his right elbow against the window.

"How?" Roxas frowned.

"It seems like something she'd do, I guess." Axel shrugged.

"But that's still gross!" Roxas exclaimed. "They're eating humans!"

"Oh well." Axel said, "What they don't know won't hurt 'em."

"We didn't have any homework for WWII, did we?" Roxas asked, changing the subject from Mrs. Lovett's human pies.

"Do we ever?" Axel smiled. "I dunno, Rox. You know I don't pay very much attention in that class."

"Obviously." Roxas said.

They stopped at a red light and waited.

"Hey, Roxas, have you listened to the second cd yet?" Axel asked.

"Not yet." Roxas said. "Why?"

"Well, I was going to wait until you listened to it, but I don't want to wait any longer…" Axel said.

"Any longer for what?" Roxas frowned, unsure of where Axel was going.

Axel's mind was racing. Did he _really _want to do this? Did he want to risk everything just so he could be with Roxas? Of course he did. No question about it. He hadn't come this far just to back down now.

"Roxas, I-" Axel began to say.

Suddenly, a car came careening down the highway, completely out of control. It came flying in their direction and smashed head on to Axel's car. They spun around on the highway, Axel hitting the breaks, causing a horrible squealing sound as the tires scraped against the asphalt. Axel's side of the car smashed into a tree, causing Roxas' head to smash against the window. Axel's head smashed against the steering wheel. He saw flashing lights…then Axel knew no more.

**ducks under table what did i tell you?! But i loved the idea of Axel attacking Kairi for Twilight and Roxas reeling him in. watches as fruit is being lobbed overhead um...review?**

**next chapter: What happens when Axel wakes up? where is Roxas?**


	25. Hanging by a Moment

**Disclaimer: I don't own FFVII or KH. But I own the plot. that must count for something!**

**It's Mika-chan! ducks under table Didn't I say before that this was going to be horrible? I did! Please don't kill me...on with the deadly tale!**

Reno was swimming with fish. At least, he was dreaming that he was swimming with fish. He twirled around a few times and did some loops when he heard his cell phone. Cell phone? He _must _be dreaming. Reno opened his eyes and looked at the clock on his radio. 11:13. Who in the world would be calling at 11 at night? Rolling his eyes, Reno grabbed his phone and held it to his ear.

"Yo?"

"Reno. Get down to the hospital right now."

"Riku?" Reno sat up, noting the seriousness in Riku's voice. "What's wrong? Did something happen?"

"Axel and Roxas were in a car crash." Riku said as Reno got out of bed and started changing clothes.

"Are they ok?" Reno asked.

"We're not sure yet. They're both in surgery right now." Riku said. "Just get down here."

"I'm on my way."

Reno got dressed in Olympic speed, got in his car and drove down to the hospital. All the while, he was praying with every fibre of his being that Axel and Roxas were still alive. Reno just found out that he had a twin. He didn't want to loose him so fast…and Reno knew that Sora would be just as miserable if Roxas died.

When Reno arrived at the hospital, he raced into the waiting room. Kairi, Riku, Sora, Demyx and Naminè were waiting together in a corner, not saying anything. Even Demyx was quiet, which showed how serious the scene was.

"Are they ok?" Reno asked as he approached the group.

"Axel's still unconscious, but he's ok." Kairi said. "He needed a few stitches, and his rib is fractured, but he'll be fine."

"And Roxas?" Reno asked, concerned about Sora's twin.

No one said anything for a moment. Reno could tell that something was wrong. Sora's expression alone told the redhead that all was not well.

"He's going to be ok, isn't he?" Reno was afraid of what the answer would be. After no one said anything, he said, "He isn't…dead, is he?"

Sora shook his head.

"He's in a coma, Reno."

"A coma?"

"You know what it is, don't you?" Riku asked.

"Of course I do." Reno said, sounding harsher than he meant to. "But he'll be ok, right?"

"They don't know." Sora said.

"What do you mean?" Reno asked, his voice cracking slightly.

"Some people never come out of comas." Naminè said, since Sora couldn't say it.

"Some never regain consciousness, either." Demyx said. "They die like that."

"But Roxas can't die!" Reno exclaimed. "There's no way that he would."

"We don't know for sure, Reno." Riku said.

"He sustained a lot of damage to his head." Kairi explained.

"But there's no way Roxas would die!" Reno exclaimed. "He's on a ventilator, right?"

"Yeah…" Demyx said.

"They wouldn't take him off of it, would they?" Reno asked.

It was silent for a moment before Sora spoke again.

"They would if he'd been in a coma for a long period of time. Like a few years." He said. "But they wouldn't just yet."

"So he still has a chance!" Reno exclaimed.

No one said anything for a moment. Reno thought about what was happening. There was no _way _that Roxas would die. He just couldn't. Axel would be so miserable if Roxas died…Axel.

"Does Axel know yet?" Reno asked the group at large.

"He's still unconscious." Naminè said.

"I'm gonna go see him." Reno announced. "Which room is he in?"

"213 on the second floor." Kairi said.

Reno nodded and headed down the hall to find the stairs. All the while he was thinking about Roxas and how different things would be if he died. Instead of being 8, their group would be 7. A whole person less. And a whole person made a lot of difference.

Reno wasn't aware of how he had reached Axel's room. All he knew was that he was suddenly standing before room 213. After knocking twice, Reno stepped inside the room, closing the door behind him. The room itself was all white, right down to the tiled floor. The ceiling was made of the same material that their school ceiling was made of. Then his eyes fell on Axel.

His twin was in a hospital bed, covered in bruises and cuts from the accident. Reno could see fresh stitch marks along Axel's face. He looked better than Reno had expected, but still far from normal. Axel must have sensed that Reno was present because the former opened his peridot eyes and said, "About time you get here."

"What the hell happened, Axel?" Reno asked his twin, sitting down in the chair by Axel.

"We were waiting at a stoplight when a car suddenly came speeding out of nowhere and ran right into us. We spun right into a tree." Axel said. "I tried to stop, but I couldn't."

"Geez, Axel." Reno shook his head, though smiling, pleased to see that his brother was ok. "You always seem to get in trouble, don't you?"

"I guess so." Axel smiled, but his expression became anxious when he thought of Roxas. "Roxas! Reno, is Roxas ok?"

Axel knew that something was wrong when Reno didn't say anything. Axel immediately feared the worst, that Roxas was dead.

"He isn't…dead, is he?" Axel asked fearfully.

"Not yet." Reno said.

"What do you mean, 'not yet'?" Axel asked, panicking slightly. "What's wrong with Roxas?"

Reno hesitated for a moment before saying, "He's in a coma, Axel."

It was as Axel had expected. One of his friends in Traverse Town had had a brother die in a coma. Axel knew how serious it was to be in a coma that one might never wake up…

"Kairi said that he sustained a lot of damage to his head." Reno explained, though he knew that Axel wasn't really thinking about why Roxas was in a coma in the first place.

"So he's going to die…" Axel said to himself.

"Maybe not." Reno said. "But from what Sora said, it doesn't look good."

Axel fell silent. He would not believe that his best friend was in a coma. Roxas couldn't die. Not when Axel had so much to tell him. Not yet.

**You can't kill me yet! if you do, Roxas might die! hides behind shield um...review?**

**next chapter: Axel is back at school, but Roxas is on his mind**


	26. Here Without You

**Disclaimer: Don't own KH or FFVII. how many times must i say it?**

**It's Mika-chan! I bet everyone is ready to murder me, ne? you won't be saying so later...trust me. I hate to say it, but this story is almost over...i don't want it to be, but it is. well, on with the deadly tale!**

Axel was sleeping soundly when he felt someone gently shaking him. Axel groaned and tried to turn over but felt a sharp pain in his chest. _Stupid rib_ Axel thought. He opened his emerald eyes and found Reno trying to wake him up.

"What, Reno?" Axel mumbled, trying not to fall back asleep.

"Gotta get up, Axel." Reno said; glad to see that his twin was awake.

Reno left, allowing Axel to get dressed. It was hard, since he had a fractured rib, but nothing could be done about it. Not unless Axel wanted to risk getting pneumonia and the redhead wasn't planning on that ever happening.

Slowly getting out of bed, Axel made his way over to the mirror, where he checked to see how bad the damage had been. To cover the scars underneath his eyes, Axel had gotten 2 cascade tattoos in the exact spots where the scars were. It was unusual to see himself with tattoos so shockingly close to his eyes, but Axel liked the new look. It made his eyes seem more slanted. Kind of like a cats.

Axel slowly changed into his Skillet t-shirt, black cargo pants and black Vans. He was attempting to tame his unruly red hair when Reno knocked twice and entered.

"You ok?"

"Yeah." Axel said.

"Are we still going over to Sora's?" Reno asked.

Reno had been avoiding saying Roxas' name ever since the accident, not wanting Axel to get depressed.

"I guess so." Axel said with a shrug.

He swung his backpack over his shoulder and followed his twin out of the room and down the hall into the kitchen. Both boys grabbed a breakfast bar and headed off to Roxas and Sora's house. Reno knocked and waited for Sora to open the door.

"How are you doing?" Reno asked when Sora finally answered.

"I'm doing ok." Sora said. He turned to Axel and said, "How are you doing? You getting around ok?"

"I'll be fine." Axel assured him.

It was with a dreary mood that the three of them walked to school. Axel knew that the whole school knew about the car crash. And since it was a well-known fact that Axel and Roxas were best friends, they knew that Axel would want to be left alone. But they didn't know half of it. They didn't know how much Roxas meant to Axel.

Biology was a complete bore. Reno always fell asleep, which he did today. But Axel and Roxas usually talked most of the time. Without Roxas, Axel was feeling very lonely. He didn't expect Reno to wake up anytime soon, so Axel took out his spiral that Roxas had given him a few weeks prior and turned to a fresh new page.

Axel stared at the spiral, pen in hand, trying to think of how to describe what he was feeling. There was no way he could describe what was going on in his mind. Correction; there was no way to do it in a way that made any sense. A few phrases came to mind, but none of them really clicked like they should. A few minutes went by and Axel still hadn't thought of anything. He wanted to write it down, to let his emotions flow onto the paper in front of him. But nothing seemed to work.

Suddenly, Axel thought of the perfect phrase. Pausing for a moment, he tried to think of a way to shape it, to make it seem more beautiful. He then tried to get the rhyme to make sense, to make the words rhyme effortlessly. Axel wrote the words down on the paper and paused, thinking of a new pair of sentences. After writing a few stanzas, it became easier for Axel to write how he felt. Maybe writing wasn't so bad after all…and he felt a lot better than he did before.

About 20 minutes later, Axel was finished with the first draft of his poem. He ripped the draft out of the notebook, took out a different coloured pen and started to make some changes; taking out words and putting new ones in their place. The redhead remembered what Roxas had told him about getting rhythm right in the poem too. Axel didn't really want to do all the work, but he needed to release his emotions, to let his emotions become words flowing on the paper. And it wasn't that bad.

Class ended 20 minutes later. Axel packed up his stuff, woke up Reno and the two headed off to Computers, where they worked on the Flash animation that they had started the previous week. After that was World War II. The movie today was about Enigma, a machine used by the British to decipher German codes. Axel never really liked code stuff and he cared even less today. Axel felt exhausted, partially because he was still tired from the accident and partially because he had used up a lot of energy writing his poem. He'd have to have Roxas read it if he woke up. No. _When_ he woke up. Axel shook those thoughts from his head. Roxas _would _wake up. He wouldn't die. As soon as the lights went off in the classroom, Axel leaned his head gingerly against his still bruised arms, trying not to fall asleep. But soon enough, his eyes closed and his mind embraced the gentleness of sleep.

* * *

A week later, Axel was walking to the hospital to see Roxas. He didn't trust himself in a car anymore. And he wouldn't again until he knew that Roxas was alive and well. He walked into the hospital and went up to Roxas' room, where Sora was outside the door.

"I didn't think you were coming today." Sora said, sounding surprised, but pleased all the same.

"He's my best friend, isn't he?" Axel said with a shrug.

"The doctors said that people in comas can hear what's going on." Sora said. "I'm talking to him to see if he'll wake up. Maybe if he hears you, he'll wake up sooner."

"I hope so." Axel said.

"Well, I'm going to get something to eat." Sora said. "Just don't say anything that will make him upset."

"Got it." Axel said.

Sora nodded and walked down the hall. Axel walked inside and saw Roxas for the first time since the accident.

Roxas was lying in a hospital bed, eyelids closed over his usually cerulean blue eyes. An IV needle was stuck into his arm as well as other things that Axel didn't recognize. Axel slowly approached the blonde and said, "Hey, Roxas. It's Axel."

He felt really stupid introducing himself, but how else would Roxas know the redhead's presence? He could see Roxas' heart rate increase slightly on the monitor above the bed.

"I just wanted to stop by and see if you were doing ok." Axel leaned against the wall.

"You'd better wake up soon, Roxas. It's really lonely without you." Axel could feel tears forming in his eyes, but he fought to hold them back. "There are so many things I want to tell you. And if you die, well, what would I do then?"

Axel stared at Roxas for a moment, hoping that Roxas was listening to what he was telling him. Just looking at Roxas made Axel think of what his life would be like without the blonde. Roxas could never get angry, happy, sad…he could never smile of laugh that laugh that Axel loved to hear. There would be no more Roxas. And Axel knew that nothing could ever be the same without him.

"And it's not just me." Axel went on, giving up and allowing the tears to flow down his face. "What about everyone else? Even Demyx is quiet and you know how rare _that _is. Sora's been miserable without you, Roxas. So has everyone else, so could you please wake up sometime soon?"

He wiped the tears from his face, pausing before saying, "I don't want to imagine a world without you, Roxas."

Fearing that he would loose control entirely, Axel left to find Sora outside.

"Are you ok?" Sora seemed surprised when he found fresh tears falling from Axel's eyes.

"I'm ok." Axel said.

He walked down the hallway and left the hospital, feeling like he had just aged a hundred years in only a few minutes.

* * *

The next day, Roxas still hadn't woken up. Axel was still a little sore, but for the most part, he was back to normal. Well, he'd be all normal if Roxas would wake up. Axel had finished his poem. The hardest part, surprisingly, was coming up with a title. Nothing he thought of would work. He couldn't ask anyone else in the group what they thought. They didn't understand what he felt. Well, Sora did. But Axel didn't want to bother Sora. Sora had enough on his mind, with his twin being in a coma and all. That's when it came to Axel. Memory. It was perfect. It fit the theme and the message of the poem. Axel had meant to type it, but it was still in his spiral, though the handwriting of this second draft was much neater than the first.

School had ended and Reno and Axel were walking home with Sora. The mood had lightened slightly, but it still felt like there was a cloud hanging over everyone's head that wouldn't lift until Roxas woke up.

"Are you going to see Roxas today?" Axel asked Sora as they reached their street.

"I might." Sora said. "Why, are you?"

"I was thinking about it." Axel said.

"I hope he'll wake up soon." Reno said.

"Trust me. We all do." Sora said.

Reno and Axel went to their house, where Axel went up to his room to try to take a nap and take his mind off of things. He must've been asleep for several hours when his phone rang. Sora. Axel turned on his phone and held it to his ear.

"Yo, it's Axel."

"Axel, get down to the hospital. It's Roxas." Came Sora's voice.

"Roxas? Axel immediately feared the worst. "Is he ok?"

"He's better than ok." Sora said excitedly. "He just woke up!"

**can i come out from hiding now? If i can't, I'm going to wonder what in shiva is wrong with you people. Remember Axel's poem. Well, the fact that he wrote one. It's one that i wrote but I think it goes well with the situation...you'll see it later. **

**next chapter: Axel goes to see Roxas. But is something wrong with Roxas?**


	27. Visitation

**Disclaimer: Still don't own KH or FFVII.**

**It's Mika-chan! Can I come out from hiding now? I'm assuming I can, since Roxas is alive. Sorry this is so short. I came up with a new plot kinda, so it's going to be a LITTLE bit longer than i thought. on with the deadly tale!**

Axel ran out of his room and down to the basement where Reno's room was. He flung open his twin's door and found Reno lying on his bed, doing homework. When Reno heard his door open, he looked at Axel in surprise.

"Reno, Roxas just woke up!" Axel exclaimed.

"What?" Reno asked as he followed Axel out of his room and up the stairs. "How did you find this out?"

"Sora just called me." Axel explained as he put on his shoes and ran out the door.

"Slow down, Axel!" Reno called after him.

He walked out the front door to find Axel jumping up and down in place in the front yard.

"Hurry up, Reno!" Axel exclaimed.

"You'll see him soon enough." Reno said. "Do you want to drive or walk?"

"Which will get us there faster?" Axel asked.

"It probably doesn't matter." Reno said with a shrug.

"Let's go in the car, then." Axel said.

When they arrived, the twins walked up a few flights of stairs to Roxas' room. Sora was waiting outside in the hall, leaning against the wall, looking bored. When he saw Axel and Reno, his expression changed and became more excited.

"How's he doing?" Reno asked.

"He's much better than the doctors thought he would be, so that's a good thing. He doesn't remember some things, but that's to be expected." Sora replied.

"What didn't he remember?" Axel frowned.

"He didn't remember Naminè. My guess is it's because he hasn't known her for a while." Sora said. "He might not remember either of you."

"Probably not me at all." Reno said. "I just moved here."

"But he might." Sora said with a shrug. "We don't know."

"Did he remember the important stuff?" Axel asked. "Like how to walk and eat and everything?"

"Yep." Sora said. "He has to go to therapy for a while, but for nowhere near as long as he would be." He looked very happy when he said, "He's much better than I thought he would be."

"Has everyone already been here?" Reno asked.

"Riku's coming later." Sora said. "He had to finish an essay for our AP US class, but he'll be down when he's done." Sora seemed to be reading Axel's mind when he said, "You can go see him now."

"Sounds good to me." Axel smiled for the first time in over a week.

He started to open the door when he noticed that his twin wasn't behind him. Axel turned around, faced Reno and said, "Aren't you coming?"

"He won't remember me." Reno said. "You go on ahead."

"You sure?" Axel frowned.

"Yeah." Reno said with a smile.

"Ok then." Axel opened the door and walked inside.

Roxas was sitting in the hospital bed, reading something. The ocean blue eyes that were usually so full of laughter looked somewhat confused. Well, he just woke up from a coma. It's only natural to be confused. When Roxas saw Axel, he frowned and started drumming his fingers, something Roxas always did when he was thinking. After a few moments, Roxas said, "I know you…"

"Axel." Axel said, hoping that the blonde would remember.

"Axel…" Roxas repeated.

Roxas said Axel's name several times, like he was trying to remember where he had heard it before.

"Oh yeah!" Roxas exclaimed. "You're the one I-"

But Roxas stopped mid-sentence, flushing bright scarlet. Axel frowned, puzzled, but didn't say anything about it.

"You don't know how relieved I am to see you awake, Roxas." Axel said, sitting next to Roxas' in one of the chairs.

"What happened?" Roxas asked. "I remember going to see Sweeny Todd with you, but the rest is a big blank."

"We got in a car crash, remember?" Axel told the blonde.

Roxas thought for a moment and said, "What happened?"

"We were waiting at the stoplight and a car crashed into us." Axel explained. "We spun around and crashed into a tree."

"I remember you talking to me." Roxas said out of the blue.

"Gee, thanks for remembering." Axel laughed.

"No, when I was the coma." Roxas said. "You were crying, too."

Then Axel realized what Roxas was talking about. He remembered when Axel broke down when he was visiting Roxas. At least Roxas _heard _him.

"Why were you crying?" Roxas asked.

"Because I couldn't stand seeing you like that." Axel said, running his fingers through his hair. "I was afraid you'd never wake up."

"Well, I'm awake." Roxas said. "I didn't like to hear you cry."

"I'm sorry." Axel said. "I didn't mean to, it just…"

"Just what?" Roxas asked when Axel paused.

"Like I said, it was hard to see you like that." Axel said.

"I'm sorry." Roxas apologized.

"It's not your fault." Axel said. He decided to change the subject. "So who else stopped by?"

"Kairi and Naminè, but I didn't remember Naminè very much." Roxas said. "Demyx came down, too."

"Do you remember my twin? Reno?" Axel asked.

"The name sounds familiar…" Roxas said.

"He hasn't been here for very long." The redhead said.

"Maybe that's why." Roxas said. "I can remember somewhat recent stuff, but not really recent stuff."

"At least you remember stuff." Axel said.

Someone knocked at the door and Reno poked his head into the room.

"Axel, we need to get home. Mom said that dinner's ready."

"But I'm talking to Roxas!" Axel protested.

"You know what she's like, so let's go." Reno said. "You can come see him tomorrow."

He retreated and closed the door. Axel sighed and shook his head. Couldn't his mother understand that he wanted to see Roxas, who until very recently had been in a coma?

"Was that Reno?" Roxas asked.

"Yeah…" Axel said. "I'll come see you after school, ok?"

"Yeah." Roxas nodded.

Axel stood up and left, though still wanting to be with Roxas. He felt happier than he had since before the accident. After all, Roxas was awake. What more could he want?

**he remembers Axel...you guys have nothing to be complaining about. I posted the first chapter of my new AkuRoku fanfic! Please read it and tell me what you think! review?**

**next chapter: Roxas goes to therapy**


	28. Returning to Normal

**Disclaimer: I don't own FFVII or KH. If I did, Axel would be alive...:sob:**

**It's Mika-chan! sorry for the long wait. I started 2 new stories yesterday. One is an AkuRoku: If I Was Your Nazi. This really shouldn't be a suprise to anyone. i love WWII, what can i say? anyway, this is a bit shorter than normal, but i hope the next chapter makes up for it. on with the deadly tale!**

Axel felt much happier as he dressed for school a few days later. One reason was because it was a Friday. What teenager doesn't like Fridays? So what was the second reason? Roxas was back in school and Axel couldn't have been happier. Before he was released from the hospital, the blonde had to have his brain tested, to see if he had forgotten anything important. He only forgot things that he had learned recently, which was very good news. Sora was doing his best to help his twin regain his lost knowledge along with help from Kairi, Axel and sometimes Riku. But when Riku was along, more snogging occurred than studying. Despite this, Roxas was doing very well, though he still had to go to physical therapy for a month.

Axel had attempted to tame his unruly red hair, snapped on his several studded bracelets and was trying to fasten his necklace when one of his favourite Three Days Grace songs came on his radio: _Over and Over_. Axel stopped and listened to the words that were being sung. He remembered when he first moved to Twilight Town and was still uncertain of his feelings for Roxas. But Axel was certain of his feelings now. And he would have confessed his feelings by now if it hadn't been for that damned car.

So when _was_ Axel going to confess? He had decided to wait until Roxas was finished with physical therapy. The redhead had had to go through physical therapy when he had broken his leg in the 4th grade playing rec soccer. He knew that therapy wasn't fun. So he decided to let Roxas endure the hell that was therapy and then confess.

Axel became aware that _Over and Over _had ended when he heard the first chords of _Time of Dying_. Sighing, the redhead turned off the radio, grabbed his backpack and went downstairs to the kitchen, where Reno was currently leaning against the doorframe, apparently waiting.

"It's about time." He said in a somewhat moody voice.

"I was listening to the radio and lost all track of time." Axel admitted.

"Ready to go, then?" Reno asked.

"Yep." Axel nodded.

The twins left for Sora and Roxas' house, where they stood at the front door after knocking. Sora answered the door and allowed the redheads to enter.

"You don't have to knock, you know." Sora said. "You can just barge right in."

"But it's rude to barge right in." Axel said as they followed Sora into the kitchen.

Roxas was at the table, eating a bowl of cereal. When he noticed Axel and Reno's presence, he said, "What's up?"

"Not much." Reno leaned against the doorframe. "Ready to go back?"

"I guess so." Roxas said. "But I liked staying at home."

"Biology was a bore without you, Roxas." Axel said. "With Reno sleeping, I had no one to talk to."

"I'm back now, so you can talk to me." Roxas said with a smile.

"Hurry up, Roxas." Sora said. "We're going to be late."

"Ok, ok." Roxas said.

He finished up his cereal and left with the rest. Once they got to school, Roxas, Axel and Reno went off to Biology. Reno fell asleep. Again. What else is new?

"I'm bored." Roxas said.

"We can talk." Axel said. "I missed hearing you talk."

"Is that a compliment?" Roxas frowned.

"I guess so." Axel said. "I just missed you being here, Roxas."

"I missed being with you too, Axel." Roxas said.

"You were in a coma!" Axel exclaimed. "You couldn't talk to me to begin with."

"I know, I know." Roxas said.

Biology was much more bearable with Roxas around. Axel had forgotten how interesting it could be when the blonde was there.

He noticed Roxas was acting a bit strangely. Axel had first noticed it when he went to see Roxas after he woke up. He had said, "You're the one I…" but stopped. The one Roxas what? Killed? Obviously not or Axel wouldn't be alive. Heard while I was in a coma? That was possible. Then it dawned on Axel.

Could Roxas have meant, "You're the one I like?"

Axel tuned everything else out and focused on his thoughts. Could that be what the blonde meant? But Roxas really hadn't shown any sign of love toward Axel before. Was Axel just imagining things? Was he piecing together information that wasn't supposed to be together?

Axel shook these thoughts from his head. He'd find out eventually. Not as soon as he hoped, but soon enough.

When they went to Computers, Axel and Reno filled Roxas in on what they were doing. They were creating spreadsheets, something all three found to be the most basic of basic, but it was needed anyway.

"This is such a drag." Axel said as he listed all of the albums on his iPod.

"Tell me about it." Roxas said.

"How many albums to you have?" Reno asked.

"57." Axel said. "Got it memorized?"

"Sure?" Reno still wasn't used to Axel's odd way of speech, but it wasn't impossible to understand.

"I think we should be making Mash-ups." Roxas said.

"What would you make a Mash-up of?" Axel asked, looking into the blonde's sapphire eyes.

"_Boulevard of Broken Dreams _and _Riot_." Roxas said.

"Roxas, those are two totally different songs!" Reno exclaimed. "You can't possible combine the two!"

"I can and will." Roxas said.

Computers was over a few minutes later, which meant WWII. Today they were learning about the Battle of the Bulge. Axel liked European battles a lot, but he didn't feel like watching today. He had more important things on his mind. Like figuring out if Roxas liked him or not.

**Sorry it's short! i plan on having Axel's poem in the next chapter and maybe another of Roxas'. review?**

**next chapter: Roxas realizes something...and does he read Axel's poem?**


	29. Understanding

**Disclaimer: I only own the poems.**

**It's Mika-chan! this is a pretty long chapter...and it's an important chapter that i loved to write! I'm updating during my US 1945 class...we're in the computer lab working on powerpoints for the 1970s. well...on with the deadly tale!**

A month went by pretty quickly. Roxas' therapy wasn't as bad as the blonde had feared. He still didn't remember all of his former knowledge, but Sora, Kairi and Axel were doing their best to help him. And Roxas was almost entirely back to normal.

Axel had wanted to confess his feelings to Roxas for some time after the therapy had ended. But Axel still hadn't done it yet. What was he so nervous about? He had been about to confess when they had been in the crash. So what was hard about doing it a second time? Maybe Axel was afraid…afraid that Roxas would say no. But there was no way that Roxas could say no. Would Roxas do that to him?

The trio was sitting through Biology, bored as usual. The redhead was taking notes only half-heartedly. Roxas had his cerulean eyes focused on the screen. Axel leaned back in his seat and yawned, wishing he could be asleep like his twin, who was sleeping next to Roxas. His eyes turned to Roxas when he noticed the blonde drumming his fingers on the lab table, something Roxas always did when he was thinking.

"What's wrong?" Axel asked.

"It's nothing." Roxas said. "I'm just somewhat confused."

"About what?" Axel asked.

"I'm not sure I can tell you…" Roxas said. "You'll think I'm crazy."

"What is it?" Axel frowned.

"I really don't want to tell you yet…" Roxas flushed a very deep shade of scarlet.

"Tell me what, Roxas?" Axel asked, trying to understand what the blonde was talking about.

"I'll tell you when I feel like I can talk about it." Roxas said. "I might need to talk to Sora about it first."

"Sora?" Axel was somewhat surprised that Roxas would tell Sora something that he wouldn't tell his best friend. "Rox, I'm your best friend. You can tell me anything."

"I know, Axel." Roxas said. "But it's kind of embarrassing to talk about."

"Ok, I'm not gonna force you." Axel said. "But you know you can tell me whenever you're ready."

"Yeah." Roxas said. "I just need to sort this all out in my head first."

"If you say so." Axel said, looking at the blonde sceptically with peridot eyes.

After Biology, the trio made their way to Computers, where they were working on yet another website. Reno was working on one about Evanescence and Roxas' was about the Salem Witch Trials. Axel was attempting to do separate websites on Dir en Grey and vampires.

"Having some trouble?" Roxas asked when Axel accidentally put a music video for _Obscure_ on the vampire website.

"I can't really keep track of which goes where." Axel explained.

"So don't do two at a time." Reno rolled his eyes.

"But I love Diru and vampires!" Axel exclaimed, "Got it memorized?"

"So why don't you make a dual website for both?" Reno suggested as he started working on the bios for Evanescence.

"That would be so weird." Axel said.

"Doesn't Dir en Grey have a video with vampires?" Roxas frowned.

"Oomph has a video that reminds me of vampires." Axel said. "Gott ist ein Popstar."

"Oh yeah." Roxas said, turning his attention back to the monitor.

Half an hour later, they made their way to WWII. The movie today was about the Battle of Stalingrad. And Reno fell asleep during it. Again. Was there ever a time when Reno stayed awake during a WWII video? Of course not. But Roxas and Axel were forced to suffer through the boring movie about the Battle of Stalingrad. Axel turned his eyes away from the movie and looked at Roxas. The blonde was writing something down in a spiral that he had with him at all times.

"What are you writing?" Axel asked.

"It's a poem." Roxas said. "You can't read it until I'm done, ok?"

"Ok." Axel said with a smile. "When will that be?"

"I dunno." Roxas shrugged. "I have to finish the octave and I have the sestet to write."

"Whatever you say…" Axel said.

While Roxas worked on his poem, Axel's mind wandered. Thoughts varied from vampires to bits of the video for _Obscure_ coming into his head. Either way, the redhead didn't want to focus on the movie. And class was almost over! Why even bother?

A few moments later, Roxas tapped Axel on the shoulder.

"I'm finished." Roxas smiled.

"Am I allowed to read it?" Axel smiled in reply.

"I suppose." Roxas said, handing Axel the spiral.

Axel's eyes scanned the page to determine how long the poem was. He saw Roxas' usual somewhat tidy writing and the long words in the poem. Well, Axel said he'd read it…

But Axel was surprised by Roxas' poem. He knew the blonde wrote about dark stuff, but Axel never would've guess Roxas would write about such a depressing topic. And Axel didn't think of things as being depressing. But this was just sad.

_She looked at him with pleading, vengeful eyes_

_While she was kneeling, begging on the floor._

_Her eyes on him as he ignored her cries._

_She would not suffer through this anymore._

_She ran through the city, a dark, cold night._

_He had abused her oh so many times._

_And then she saw the bright white beam of light._

_Too soon he would be paying for his crimes._

_She left the town and went to the graveyard_

_Where she went to the grave of her true love._

_The sky and her soul were the colour black._

_Her mind and body were so very scarred._

_She wanted to take flight just like a dove_

_So she could start to get her life on track._

"Is it that depressing, Axel?"

"What's this called?" Axel asked as he handed back the spiral.

"Lament." Roxas said. "Did it sound ok?"

"It's depressing!" Axel exclaimed. "But it's good. How did you come up with it?"

"Well, I was watching a Hellsing amv to _Lies Buried With Vengeance_ by Dir en Grey." Roxas said.

"I didn't think you listened to Dir en Grey." Axel frowned.

"I do now. They're not half bad." Roxas said.

"Well, I liked it." Axel said. "Even if it's depressing."

* * *

When Roxas and Sora got home that afternoon, Roxas went up to his room and turned on his computer so he could work on his essay for WWII. The topic? Research any two Nazis and write a report on them. Roxas was doing Himmler and Hess, though very few people knew who Hess was.

The blonde had reached into his backpack when he noticed an extra spiral inside it. Frowning, Roxas took out the spiral and opened it up, trying to figure out whom it belonged to. He recognized the handwriting as Axel's. It seemed that the redhead had finally used the spiral for some writing.

The first few pages were attempts to write a poem. These pages consisted of many scratched out lines and rewrites. But these too were scratched out. Then Roxas turned to the 3rd page.

It seemed that Axel had finally written the poem he'd been trying to do on the first few pages. On the top of the paper was the word Memory, which Roxas assumed to be the title. Under the title was a date: February 16, 2008. Roxas didn't remember anything about February 16th. Then Roxas remembered that he had been in a coma. That seemed to make sense for not remembering the date.

He proceeded to reading the poem. The words were somewhat neater than Axel's usual handwriting. But Roxas could tell that it was still Axel's writing.

_What do I call this feeling_

_lying sleeping in my heart?_

_Where do I begin?_

_Where should I even start?_

_You told me that you loved me._

_These words I know are true._

_But there were oh so many things_

_I longed to say to you._

_From the time that I first met you,_

_I knew not what I would say._

_But I knew that I'd be with you_

_forever and always._

_As time grew older, I could feel_

_my love for you grow more._

_Though I didn't know when to ask_

_my question I was sure._

_My time with you was much too short._

_I knew it couldn't last._

_But I was completely unprepared_

_for our love to end so fast._

_When news reached me of your death,_

_I just sat down and cried._

_I knew I could not save you,_

_no matter how I tried._

_So now I stand before you _

_at the edge of your small grave._

_Clasped so tightly in my hand_

_is the thing of you I saved._

_The silver heart shaped locket_

_you used to wear around your neck._

_It's the one thing that I know_

_will help me remember you the best._

_I know that you are gone, love._

_You are never coming back._

_But I don't know any other way_

_to get my life on track._

_So I'll keep this memory of you_

_and hold it deep within my heart._

_With the memory of when I met you._

_From the beginning, from the start._

Axel's words surprised Roxas. The blonde didn't know Axel could write like this. And he'd never even mentioned a poem before. And it wasn't Axel's style of writing, either. But it seemed like Axel really concentrated on writing this poem, like it was a life or death matter that Axel needed to write it. And it certainly seemed like Axel put a lot of time and effort into the poem.

Then Roxas remembered the second cd Axel had given him. He grabbed the cd, put it in the CD player, turned it on and hit play. The first song was _Your Eyes_ from RENT. This was followed by _All The Things She Said_ by T.a.t.U, _Broken _by Seether and Amy Lee, _My Immortal_ by Evanescence, _What Have You Done_ by Within Temptation, _Leave out all the Rest _by Linkin Park, _With _Me by Sum 41, _Forever _Yours by Nightwish, _Here Without You _by Three Doors Down and _Ain't Afraid To Die _by Dir en Grey.

The last song was new to Roxas. It began with a series of guitar chords for a few seconds before the words started.

_I feel it every day; it's all the same. It brings me down, but I'm the one to blame. I've tried everything to get away._

_So here I go again, chasing you down again. Why do I do this?_

Roxas could swear that he had heard the song somewhere before after hearing the first verse. But where had he heard it?

_Over and over. Over and over I fall for you. Over and over. Over and over. I try not to…_

_It feels like everything stays the same. It's dragging me down and I can't pull away._

_So here I go again. Chasing you down again. Why do I do this_?

The chorus started for the second time. Roxas was getting really annoyed now. Where had he heard this song? But as the bridge started, Roxas listened to the words carefully, noticing how they were so similar to his own feelings.

_So many thoughts that I can't get out of my head. I try to live without you. Every time I do, I feel dead. I know what's best for me. But I want you instead. I'll keep on wasting all my time…_

That's when Roxas realized it. He'd heard Sora listening to it. And Sora had told him it was called _Over and Over_. Something clicked in Roxas' mind. He logged onto his computer and went to his music folder. Sure enough, he found the song called _Over and Over_ that Axel had sent him months ago. It was the exact same song. Then it dawned on Roxas…

Why hadn't he figured it out before? Were his own feelings and emotions getting in the way? Had they been clogging up his thoughts and prevented him from seeing things clearly?

But Roxas could see clearly now. Crystal clear. And Roxas knew what was going on in his mind. All of the jumbled up emotions that never seemed to fit suddenly fit into place. And to think that it was all because of a song. If Roxas had listened to it months ago when Axel first sent it to him, he would have known his feelings long ago. He would have known how he felt.

Roxas was in love with Axel.

**you guys can't yell at me about this one. I actually wrote both of the poems. I wrote Roxas' for creative writing for my iambic pentameter sonnet and I wrote Axel's one night when I was uber depressed...so...review?**

**next chapter: who confesses first? **


	30. Confessions

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything. I think the characters would start a riot...**

**It's Mika-chan! it pains me to say this, but this story is almost over. and i don't want it to! it seems like forever since i started this...and i really love this. but i'm excited because i'm going to see the live-action Death Note with my friends next tuesday. I'm uber excited! and this is the famous ask out chapter! I loved that part! anyway, on with the deadly tale!**

All through first block Biology the next morning, Roxas was trying to think of a way to confess his feelings to Axel. But would Axel think he was crazy? Roxas then remembered Axel telling him that the latter was gay. So Axel probably wouldn't say anything about it. But did Axel feel the same about Roxas?

Axel seemed to notice that Roxas was slightly distracted during Computers. How did he know this? Roxas accidentally put an image of My Chemical Romance on his website for _Death Note_. Roxas would usually catch a mistake like this, so Axel knew that _something _was on the blonde's mind. But what was it? Axel hadn't been acting differently around the blonde, so that couldn't be it. And nothing had really changed, either. Maybe Roxas had figured something out by himself. _But what was it_?

"Something on your mind, Roxas?" Axel asked, deciding that being upfront was the best way to confront the problem ahead.

"I'm ok, Axel." Roxas said.

"Are you sure?" Axel asked again.

"Positive."

Roxas wasn't sure why he wasn't telling Axel what he was thinking. Maybe the presence of Axel's twin brother was enough to keep Roxas from confessing. But Roxas didn't think that Reno would announce Roxas' confession to the whole school.

WWII was as boring as usual. They began their warm-up, which consisted of a series of questions on the invasion of Normandy. They then were required to work on a series of questions on the fall of Berlin, something completely off topic, since they were discussing Midway and Wake Islands.

"This is such a drag."

Axel and Roxas were still working on their questions when Reno decided to start reading, something he never did.

"You always say that." Axel rolled his peridot eyes.

"Are you reading, Reno?" Roxas stared at the grey-eyed teen in wonder.

"What does it look like I'm doing?" Reno sighed. "Having tea with the queen?"

"No…" Roxas said slowly.

"What are you reading?" Axel asked, setting his pencil down and leaning back in his chair.

"The new _Death Note_ that I got from Zexion." Reno said.

"When did you get it?" Axel frowned.

"This morning." Reno said, turning a page.

"Zexion probably has enough books to fill a library." Roxas said. "Let me read it when you're done, ok?"

"What's the point, Roxas?" Axel smiled. "You've already read them online, haven't you?"

"Oh yeah." Roxas frowned. "But I still want to read it again."

Once WWII was over, the trio made their way to the cafeteria. After getting their so-called "lunch", they walked out to their usual spot.

"So what are we doing after school?" Demyx asked.

"Sora, can I steal Roxas away from you for a bit tonight?" Axel asked Sora, who was currently pouring a large quantity of honey mustard on his chicken salad.

"I don't know why you always ask me." Sora shrugged. "I don't have a problem with it."

"But it feels better if I ask you." Axel asked.

"What are you planning on doing, Axel?" Naminè smiled. "Kill him?"

"Why would I kill Roxas?" Axel questioned.

"You'd better not." Roxas said as he flushed slightly.

"What's with you, Roxas?" Reno asked. "It's not like he's really going to kill you."

"Oh, shut it, Reno." Roxas rolled his azure eyes.

"Anyway, I have no problem with it, Axel." Sora said.

"So what are the rest of us doing?" Demyx asked.

"I was going to have Naminè over so we could watch _Music and Lyrics_." Kairi said.

"I love that movie!" Naminè exclaimed.

"I hate it." Riku, Demyx, Axel and Reno said as one.

"Go figure." Sora rolled his eyes.

"I feel like going to the movies." Riku said.

"I'll go!" Sora exclaimed.

"Ok, then." Riku said. "You meet me at my house around 5:30 and we'll figure out what's playing."

"Sounds good to me."

* * *

"Hey, Riku, I think they know it."

Sora and Riku were sitting through AP US History, trying to ignore the teacher, who was droning on about how the Great Depression was a tragic time for America.

"Who knows what?" the silver-haired teen asked.

"Axel and Roxas know that they like each other." Sora replied.

"It's about time." Riku rolled his eyes. "It took them forever." He frowned and said, "But are you sure?"

"Didn't you see the way Roxas blushed at lunch today?" Sora questioned.

"Yeah, but that doesn't really mean anything." Riku said.

"And I think Roxas has been a little dazed lately." Sora went on.

"And that's unusual." Riku said. "Roxas is usually on top of things."

"Reno told me that he put a picture of My Chemical Romance on his _Death Note_ website. It was there for 10 minutes before Roxas realized it."

"So?" Riku couldn't see where Sora was going with the conversation.

"Axel said that Roxas usually notices things like that right away." Sora said. "He must've been thinking pretty hard about something for that to happen."

"But he could have been thinking about what they were serving for lunch today." Riku pointed out. "That doesn't mean he was thinking about Axel."

"Riku, who seriously thinks that hard about school lunch?" Sora raised his eyebrows at his boyfriend.

"I get it, I get it." Riku said before returning his attention to the lecture.

* * *

"So why are we here again?"

Roxas and Axel were walking through the park a few streets away from the school. Axel had told Roxas that he just wanted to take a walk and he wanted to talk to Roxas about something, though the blonde had no idea what that could be.

"I want to tell you something Roxas." Axel said.

"You usually do." Roxas said with a smile.

"I'm being serious." Axel said.

And Roxas could tell from the way that Axel's peridot eyes were looking at him that the redhead was not in a joking sort of mood like he usually was.

"I'm all ears." Roxas said.

"You know how you wanted me to write something?" Axel began.

"Oh, your poem?" Roxas assumed.

Axel frowned and said, "Yeah…how did you know about that?"

"You left your spiral in my backpack." Roxas said. "And I couldn't figure out the handwriting until I saw the poem…"

"Oh…" Axel said, looking slightly dejected.

"But I really liked it." Roxas said quickly. "It made me think of something that I should have realized a long time ago."

"What was that?" Axel asked curiously.

"You were talking first." Roxas said.

Axel rolled his eyes, but continued.

"When I first met you, Roxas, I thought we'd be friends and that's it. But then we got closer and look at us now." Axel smiled. "We're hardly apart."

"I never thought about that…" Roxas smiled in return.

"So then I started to feel a little differently around you than I did around the other guys. I thought I knew what it was, but I didn't want it to be true. I would have been too weird." Axel said. "But then we had that debate in English and suddenly, I didn't care anymore. I didn't care about what other people said."

"So what are you saying, Axel?" Roxas frowned.

"Do you remember when I told you I was gay?" Axel asked. "I said that I didn't want everyone to know until I knew if he liked me back."

"What does that have to do with it?" Roxas questioned.

Axel hesitated and laughed a little, saying, "I'm not really good at this sort of thing…"

"Just tell me exactly what you feel." Roxas suggested. "That's always worked for me."

"Ok." Axel said. "I don't know if you're going to think I'm weird or not, but I guess I have to give it a shot."

"And what shot is that?" Roxas wanted to know.

Axel looked directly into Roxas' cerulean eyes and said, "You're the one I was talking about. You're the one I wanted to like me back."

"So why didn't you tell me?" Roxas questioned.

"Because I didn't know what you would say!" Axel exclaimed, earning himself some reproachful looks from passer-bys. "I didn't know if you were gay or straight or not. And I really didn't want to make myself look like an idiot if you didn't feel the same way about me that I feel about you." They sat down on a park bench while Axel thought of what he was going to say next. "And then we got in the car wreck and you were in a coma…I didn't think you'd make it, Roxas."

"But I did." Roxas said.

"I had no way of knowing that. And when I went to visit you, just seeing you lying there while I couldn't do anything…it was almost unbearable. I didn't know what I was supposed to do." Axel said. "I wished I had acted sooner. If you had died, I would have been alone, Roxas. I wouldn't have anyone else that made me feel the way that you make me feel. " Axel paused before saying, "But then you woke up and I was so afraid that you wouldn't remember me. I'd have to start all over again. And then you might not feel the way I feel for you now."

"But I _do_ feel that way about you." Roxas said.

"You do?" Axel looked somewhat shocked by Roxas' words.

"Of course I do." Roxas said. "I didn't know it until recently, but I know how I feel now." After hesitating for a moment, Roxas said, "I listened to the second CD, Axel."

"What does that have to do with anything?" Axel questioned.

"The CD you gave me. The other CD. And I heard _Over and Over_. I guess I never really understood what I was feeling or what it was even called." Roxas said. "But after reading your poem and listening to the song, it all seemed to fall into place."

And for one moment, nothing needed to be said. No words spoken could express what was going on through the minds of two teenage boys as they understood what was going on. And as they slowly came together and kissed, their actions were louder than the words could ever hope to be.

"I think I get it now." Axel said slowly.

"Get what?" Roxas asked.

"It's like _What Have You Done_?" Axel said. "I've been waiting for someone like you, but now you are slipping away."

"But I'm still here." Roxas said softly.

"But when you were in a coma, that's what I felt like." Axel said. "I found the one person I was looking for, but you were slipping out of my reach. And all I could do was watch you and hope that you would be ok." He looked into Roxas' eyes and said, "I don't want to experience that again. I want to be the one who's with you whenever things get tough, Roxas."

"And I want you to be, too." Roxas said. "And I hope that I'll be there for you, too."

"So are we going for it?" Axel asked.

"We're going for it." Roxas smiled.

"I can't really complain with that." Axel said with a smile.

The two embraced again and Roxas noticed that Axel tasted like burnt popcorn.

"Why do you taste like popcorn, Axel?" Roxas frowned, pulling away from the redhead.

"I ate some before I came over." Axel said with a smile. "Why do you ask?"

"You taste like popcorn." Roxas replied.

"Well, _you_, my Roxie, taste like pomegranates." Axel said.

"I like pomegranates." Roxas said.

"So you don't mind if I call you Roxie?" Axel asked.

"I don't really care." Roxas said.

They sat at the park for the rest of the night, watching the sunset into the horizon with a blaze of glorious colours.

**awwww!! cute AkuRoku moment! did i do ok? i'm not good with those type of things...kinda like Axel, huh? tell me what you think! review?**

**next chapter: a date?**


	31. First Date

**Disclaimer: As much as I would LOVE to own FFVII and KH, i do not.**

**It's Mika-chan! I bet everyone loved the last chapter, ne? This is the infamous date chapter. and it's a LONG one, so you guys have nothing to complain about. on with the deadly tale!**

When Axel woke up the next morning, he wondered why he felt so differently then he had the previous day. After not even a second of thought, the redhead remembered his conversation with Roxas and how he had confessed to the blonde. The fact that the two were officially together made Axel wonder if it was a dream. But then Axel checked his cell phone and when he read Roxas' text, he knew that he hadn't been dreaming.

_Are we going to tell everyone yet?_

Axel smiled, thinking about everyone's reactions when they would confess. He would have to tell Reno, since he promised his twin that he would tell how it went. At least Reno didn't have a problem with it. He decided not to answer the message, knowing that he could tell Roxas when he came over before school.

Getting out of bed, Axel walked over to the CD player and checked the CD: The Open Door from Evanescence. He took out the CD and put it back in the case before putting it back on the rack and surveying the CDs remaining. Axel eventually decided on Underclass Hero from Sum41. After setting the track to _Walking Disaster_, the redhead looked through his closet for something to wear that wasn't dirty and/or wrinkly. Since he couldn't decide right away, Axel pulled out a pair of cargo pants before returning to the closet and deciding on a Skillet T-shirt and a My Chemical Romance hoodie. About halfway through the song, Reno walked in.

"I see you're awake." Reno said.

"No, I'm only pretending to be awake." Axel rolled his eyes.

"Well, hurry up." Reno said, tying his hair back in a ponytail.

"What for?" Axel frowned.

"We have to eat breakfast, you know." Reno reminded his twin.

"Yeah, I know." Axel said. "I'll be down in a bit."

It took the redhead another minute to at least attempt to tame his unruly hair before grabbing his backpack and traipsing down the stairs to the kitchen where Reno was sitting at the table eating a doughnut.

"Where did we get doughnuts?" Axel frowned.

"Mom said that she got them at work." Reno said.

"I can't complain." Axel grabbed a chocolate covered doughnut.

"You seem different this morning." Reno looked at his twin suspiciously. "What did you do?"

"I asked Roxas out, Reno." Axel smiled.

"No way!" Reno exclaimed. "So? What did he say?"

"Yes." Axel nodded.

"Alright! I told you he liked you back!" Reno told Axel.

"Sure…" Axel rolled his eyes and took another bite of his breakfast.

"So are you guys going anywhere later?" Reno asked.

"I think we're going to get sushi, but I'm not sure." Axel said. "Just don't tell everyone ok?"

"Why not?" Reno frowned.

"Roxas wants to see how long everyone can go without us telling them." Axel said.

"You mean how long they won't notice the two of you are together?" Reno nodded. "That'll be fun. It'll take Demyx years."

"Probably not for Kairi and Naminè." Axel shook his head.

"Does Roxas know that you were telling me?" Reno grabbed another doughnut.

"Yeah. He said it was ok." Axel replied.

"That's good. I didn't want to ruin his fun." Reno smiled.

"I didn't either." Axel said. "That's why I asked him first."

"Speaking of Roxas," Reno said, "shouldn't he be here soon?"

"Yeah." Axel said.

A knock at the front door announced the arrival of the blonde. Axel said, "Why does he always come when we're talking about him?"

"He uses telepathy, Axel." Reno joked.

Axel rolled his eyes and went to let Roxas in. The blonde was standing on the front porch, backpack slung over his shoulder, looking slightly bored.

"Why the bored expression?" Axel smiled.

"I don't want to go to school today." Roxas sighed.

"It's the last day of the week." Axel said, kissing the blonde gently on the lips.

"But I wish it were Saturday already." Roxas said.

He followed Axel into the kitchen and said, "What's up, Reno?"

"Not much, Roxas." Reno said.

"Did you tell him yet?" Roxas asked Axel.

"Yep." Axel grinned in reply.

"And you don't have a problem with it?" Roxas asked the other redhead.

"Roxas, I'm gay myself. I certainly have no problem that my brother is going out with another guy." Reno said.

"I didn't know you were gay." Roxas frowned.

"He's back in Traverse Town." Reno said sadly. "But he calls me all the time."

"And uses up the minutes on your cell phone." Axel rolled his eyes.

"We need to get going if we want to get there on time." Roxas told the redheads.

"I don't really care." Reno said. "Biology is so boring."

"How would you know?" Axel questioned. "You sleep the whole time!"

"Yeah, but that doesn't mean I don't want to be there." Reno pointed out.

"I guess that's true." Axel shrugged.

* * *

"So where are we going?"

Roxas and Axel were walking towards the park, trying to figure out where they would be eating dinner. Most of the restaurants in Twilight Town were too expensive for either of the teens, so this left few options.

"How about we get some sushi?" Axel suggested. "I haven't had sushi in a while."

"I can't eat with chopsticks." Roxas said.

"Really?" Axel looked at the blonde in surprise. "Then I guess I'll have to teach you."

"It looks hard." Roxas said.

"Not really." The redhead said. "Have you ever had sushi before?"

"When I was with Sora and Riku one time last summer." Roxas replied.

"Did you like it?" Axel wondered.

"It was ok." Roxas shrugged. "Kairi told me that I didn't eat the right kind of sushi."

"We can eat somewhere else, if you want." Axel offered.

"No, I want to have some different sushi." Roxas said. "I might like it better this time."

"Ok then." Axel said enthusiastically. "Sushi it is."

When the two came to a popular sushi restaurant, they went to what Axel called his "usual spot" near the back.

"I don't like people looking at me." Axel explained to Roxas.

"Because your hair is naturally gravity defying?" Roxas smiled.

"Yeah." Axel nodded. "But they serve good sushi here."

"I've always wondered who 'they' was." Roxas said.

"What do you mean?" Axel frowned.

"You know how commercials say 'they say that…'" Roxas said. "That sort of thing."

"Oh, I get it." Axel nodded.

"So I'm wondering who 'they' is." Roxas said.

"I dunno, Roxie." Axel leaned back in his seat. "Maybe they're secret agents or something."

"Don't be ridiculous, Axel." Roxas smiled. "They're obviously ninja trained to kill."

This conversation went on for a while. The beliefs of who 'they' are consist of the following: axe-wielding cavemen, lab nerds, vampires (suggested by Axel), homicidal raccoons, authors, psychologists and the people who call at dinnertime trying to get you to buy something. Needless to say it was rather amusing for the two to figure out what the other would say next.

Soon enough, the two were munching on sushi. Well, Axel was anyway. Roxas was having a hard time with his chopsticks, as Axel could see.

"Do you need help, Roxas?"

"No, I think I'm ok." Roxas said.

And with that, Roxas picked up a piece of sushi, but dropped it again. Frowning, the blonde tried again, but to no avail. After repeating this several times, Roxas glared at the piece of sushi for a moment before stabbing it in the middle with a chopstick. The blonde smiled at Axel and said, "See? I got it!"

"You obviously don't, blue eyes." Axel said.

"Blue eyes?" Roxas frowned.

"It's my new nickname for you that only I can use." Axel said. "Watch what I do."

The redhead held the chopsticks in his hand, showing Roxas the correct way of holding them. Studying them carefully, Roxas made the same attempt. However, the blonde didn't have as much luck.

"It takes practice." Axel said.

"I guess it does." Roxas said. "Along with everything else in life."

"So what are we going to do after this?" Axel asked as he looked over the sushi platter.

"Whatever." Roxas said. "We could walk around for a bit."

"It'll be late when we get finished, won't it?" Axel assumed.

"It is…" Roxas looked at the clock on his cell phone. "Almost 8 now."

"When do you have to be home?" Axel asked. "I don't want to get you in trouble."

"Sometime before midnight." Roxas grinned. "You?"

"I, unfortunately, have to be back before 10." Axel said. "That leaves two hours to do stuff."

"We could always go to the lake and throw rocks in the water." Roxas suggested, taking a sip of his Diet Coke.

"That sounds like a plan to me." Axel nodded.

Once the two finished their sushi, they headed not for the lake, but the library. Roxas wanted to look for books on WWII, like he usually did, so Axel tagged along.

While Roxas was in the WWII section, the redhead ventured over to the manga section of the library. Searching through the titles, he found _FullMetal Alchemist, Gravitation, Naruto, Death Note, Hellsing _and _Ouran High School Host Club._ After obtaining a large amount of manga, Axel's eyes fell on _New Moon _and _Eclipse_, both sequels to _Twilight_, the vampire book that Axel had practically devoured. So Axel now had several volumes of manga plus _New Moon_ and _Eclipse_ to balance in his arms. After looking over his books, the redhead decided that it was time to find Roxas.

Meandering over to the back of the library, Axel found the blonde in the WWII section as Roxas said he would be. On the floor was a stack of enormous books with very conspicuous titles. Axel set his stack of books next to the blonde's and said, "Are you looking for anything in particular?"

"Not really." Roxas replied. "I'm just looking." His cerulean eyes fell on Axel's books and said, "Think you have enough, Axel?"

"I can finish the manga in three days." Axel shrugged. "But _Twilight_ has a sequel, Roxas!"

"Is that a good thing?" Roxas wanted to know.

"Of course!" Axel exclaimed. "And there's another after that!"

"Why don't you just find out how many books are out?" Roxas suggested.

"Good idea." Axel nodded. "I'll have to do that tomorrow."

"But tomorrow's a Saturday." Roxas pointed out.

"So?" Axel frowned. "Did you have something else in mind?"

"I dunno. I was going to see if you and Reno wanted to play DDR with me, Sora and Riku." Roxas said.

"Sounds fun." Axel said. "I'll come, though I'm not sure about Reno."

The two made their way to the checkout counter, books in tow. Since no librarians were at the circulation desk, the teens decided to use the self-checkout machine. After 10 minutes of trying to scan Axel's manga, the two were walking out the door and down the steps and into the commercial area of Twilight Town.

"We'd better head back." Roxas said. "It's almost 10."

"I know." Axel said sadly. "I'll call you tomorrow about the DDR thing, ok?"

"Ok." Roxas nodded.

The two arrived at Roxas' house a few minutes later. Both stood in front of the door for a few seconds before Axel said, "I'll see you tomorrow."

"See you then." Roxas said.

After a quick kiss goodbye, Axel set off for his own house, where he found Reno watching CSI: Miami on TV.

"How did it go?" Reno wanted to know. "And why do you have so many books?"

"It went well and we went to the library." Axel said, setting his books down on the counter. "Roxas wants to know if we want to play DDR tomorrow."

"Are you going?" Reno asked.

"I will and he invited you, too." Axel said.

"I guess I'll go." Reno said.

"Alright." Axel nodded. "I'm gonna go shower and go to sleep, ok?"

"Sounds good to me." Reno said.

He watched his twin walk up the stairs, followed by the running water from the shower a few moments later. Although his eyes were focused on the movie, Reno was really thinking about how Axel had finally gotten with Roxas after the many months he knew Axel had been waiting. It reminded Reno of how he and Cloud had gotten together. But Reno really hoped that Axel and Roxas' relationship would last.

**kinda cheesy ending, i know. but i had a headache and didn't feel like writing the end very much...i think there will be two more chapters in this story, which makes me sad. review?**

**next chapter: DDR!**


	32. Reno's Lover

**Disclaimer: I don't own KH or FFVII.**

**It's Mika-chan! I have extended this series only slightly. after this chapter, I am planning on adding 2 more chapters. I'm so sad that it's almost over! Oh, and there will be some slight lemon in this. If you don't want to read it or like boy on boy, i'm wondering why you are still reading this. anyway, on with the deadly tale!**

Axel was sitting in his room, working on a new amv: _Death Note_ to _The Beast and the Harlot_ by Avenged Sevenfold. The redhead was almost done adding clips when he heard Reno yelling from downstairs for him. Rolling his peridot eyes, Axel yelled, "What is it, Reno?"

"Roxas is here!" Reno called up the stairs.

Axel dashed out of his room and raced down to the living room where he found the blonde and his twin conversing in on the couch.

"Don't steal my lover, Reno." Axel said, wrapping his arms protectively around Roxas.

"I have my own boyfriend, Axel." Reno said. "Which reminds me," he turned to the blonde. "Roxas, is it ok if I bring Cloud along? He's coming down from Traverse Town today."

"I don't have a problem with it." Roxas shook his head. "Everyone's going to have their lover's along, aren't they?"

"Well, no one knows about us yet." Axel said with a smile.

"And I want to see how long it lasts." Roxas grinned.

"When's Cloud coming over, Reno?" Axel asked.

"Around noon." Reno replied.

"That's in half an hour." Axel pointed out.

"Is it really?!" Reno exclaimed, clearly having forgotten the time.

"Yeah." Roxas said.

"Come on, Roxie." Axel said, taking the blonde's hand and leading him to the pigsty that was Axel's room.

"So what are we going to do, Axel?" Roxas asked.

"I was thinking we could work on our WWII homework." The redhead said.

"I already finished mine." Roxas said.

"The one where we have to identify the Nazis?" Axel frowned.

"I did it when I got home last night." Roxas said.

"Great. Then you can help me with mine." Axel said as he loaded up a fresh WORD document. "Can you check the version I handwrote?"

"Yeah, sure." Roxas said as he dug through Axel's backpack until he found the WWII binder.

"How does it look?" Axel asked after a few moments of silence in which Roxas read over the work.

"Axel, Rohem was _not_ in charge of the forces in North Africa." Roxas sighed, wondering if the redhead paid attention at all.

"Eh?" Axel frowned. "Who was, then?"

"Rommel." Roxas answered.

"Then who was Rohem?" Axel wanted to know.

"He got shot because he was gay, remember?" Roxas rolled his eyes, figuring his lover would remember someone who got shot.

"Ah, right." Axel smiled sheepishly.

"And you got Goering and Goebbles mixed up." Roxas said. "Actually, I think Hitler and Himmler are the only ones you got right."

"Who doesn't know who Hitler is?" Axel asked sarcastically.

"Well, how do you know who Himmler is?" Roxas questioned.

"I just remember him because we hear about him a lot and he's ion charge of the SS." Axel shrugged.

"You have a lot of work to do, Axel." Roxas smiled.

"I know, I know." Axel said, taking the paper from the blonde so he could make corrections.

While Axel was making corrections, the room was silent save for the redhead's fingers on the keyboard. Roxas was growing more bored by the minute, but he wanted Axel to finish his WWII homework before they did anything else. And Roxas knew exactly what he wanted to do.

After what seemed like an eternity to Roxas, Axel had printed out his homework and stuck it in the binder with the plethora of papers.

"So now what?" Axel queried.

Roxas smiled maliciously, which made Axel very nervous indeed.

"I don't like that look, Roxie."

"I know you don't." Roxas said.

"I feel like lounging around." Axel said as he sprawled out on his bed.

Little did Axel realize that he was walking into Roxas' trap.

As soon as Axel had lain down on his bed, Roxas was next to him. Frowning, Axel looked at the blonde and said, "What's the deal, Roxas?"

"I have no idea, Axel." Roxas smiled in reply.

Before Axel knew what was happening, he found Roxas' lips smashed into his, though he certainly wasn't complaining. Roxas was a good kisser. So good, in fact, that it made Axel wonder if Roxas had had other lovers in the past.

Axel forced his tongue into Roxas' mouth, looking for a playmate. Roxas gave a short laugh and eagerly complied by twisting his tongue around Axel's. There was a slight tongue battle between the two before Axel commenced nibbling the blonde's earlobe. Roxas gasped, surprised by Axel's actions, though he knew he shouldn't. They were about to have another tongue battle when-

The door opened.

The two sprang apart, both falling off the bed. When they surfaced, they found Reno and another teenage boy that both assumed to be Cloud. He had hair that was just about as spiky as Axel's, though this boy's hair was a light shade of blonde. He was wearing black cargo pants with chains all over the place. On his chest was a Coheed and Cambria T-shirt and the arms were covered with studded bracelets.

"I can't leave the two of you alone for a minute, can I?" Reno smiled.

"Obviously not." The boy standing next to him said.

"What gives, Reno?!" Axel exclaimed.

"Man, he even _sounds _like you." The other blonde said.

"That's what Roxas said." Reno said, gesturing to Roxas. "Axel, Roxas, this is Cloud. Cloud, this is my twin, Axel, and his boyfriend, Roxas."

"It's about time I get to meet the one my lover is living with." Cloud said with a smile.

"And you're the infamous Cloud." Axel smiled, pulling Roxas off the floor.

"I told him about you." Reno told a somewhat confused Cloud.

"I guess you had to." Cloud said as he and Reno sat down on the unoccupied bed. "Does he know about us?"

"Yeah, I told him." Reno said.

"And he obviously doesn't have a problem if he has a boyfriend himself." Cloud said.

"I'm right here, you know." Axel scowled.

"How long are you staying?" Roxas asked, speaking for the first time since Cloud and Reno's arrival.

"Just for the weekend." Reno said somewhat sadly. "At least he's here and I can see him."

"I missed you too." Cloud smiled.

"If you're going to start kissing, go to your room, Reno." Axel ordered.

"Like we wanted to walk in and find you two going at it." Reno raised his eyebrows.

"I'm bored." Roxas announced.

"Well, let's do something." Cloud said.

"I'm going to be with Roxas." Axel said. "You two can do something else."

"Yeah, I hear ya." Reno rolled his eyes as he dragged Cloud out of the room.

"So Reno's boyfriend is over…" Roxas said to himself. "This is going to get interesting."

**I just HAD to introduce Cloud! review?**

**next chapter: Demyx plus DDR equals disaster**


	33. Demyx and DDR

**Disclaimer: I don't own FFVII or KH**

**It's Mika-chan! Sorry for the long wait. i didn't feel like writing this...as sad is it is for me to say this, there will be one more chapter of Roulette...and i hope it'll be a good one. this, however, will change if anyone wants to give me ideas for some filler chapters or something like that. this is the last chapter that Cloud will be in as well. well, the last scheduled chapter that Cloud will be in. anyway...on with the deadly tale!**

"So what do we do now?" Roxas wanted to know after Reno and Cloud made their grand exodus.

"I have no clue." Axel said with a grin. "I guess we can head over early. Are we going to Riku's house or yours?"

"Riku's." Roxas said, wrapping his arm around the redhead's waist.

"Sounds like a plan to me." Axel said happily.

And with that, the two headed off to Riku's house, where they found Sora waiting outside.

"You wanted to get here early, huh?" Sora assumed.

"Reno's bringing his boyfriend over." Axel said. "Just so you know."

"Who is he?" Sora frowned. "Is he from around here?"

"No, he's from Traverse Town." Axel shook his head.

"I have no problem with it." Sora nodded. "I don't think Riku will, either." He leaned impatiently against the wall. "So when are you guys going to get girlfriends?"

Neither Axel nor Roxas said anything. For one thing, they were gay, so they couldn't have a girlfriend. But Sora didn't know that Axel was gay. Secondly, they were already going out, but Roxas wanted to see how long they could keep the secret.

"Oh, right." Sora smacked himself on the forehead in annoyance. "You're gay, right, Roxas?"

"Yeah." The blonde nodded as he flushed bright scarlet.

There was no need to tell Sora that his boyfriend was standing not three feet away, right?

"It's nothing to be embarrassed about." Sora said.

"I think Mom's going to be pissed, though." Roxas shook his head.

"Why?" Axel frowned. "Does she not like gay guys?"

"She thinks it's weird that I'm seeing another guy instead of a chick." Sora shrugged. "I don't think Mom wants Roxas to be gay as well."

"Well, I'm gay, so she's going to have to live with it." Roxas said.

"May I ask one slightly random question?" Axel wanted to know.

"Sure." Sora and Roxas said as one.

"Why are we standing outside?" Axel queried.

"Because Riku isn't here yet." Sora said.

"Yes, I am."

As they turned around, the boys saw Riku strolling up his driveway, looking somewhat quizzically at the teens on his doorstep.

"Why so early, huh?" Riku frowned as he opened the door.

"We were bored." Roxas said.

When they arrived in the living room, they found Demyx sitting on the couch watching _South Park_ on TV.

"What the hell, Demyx?!" Riku exclaimed.

"What are you even doing here?" Axel asked the blonde teen.

"I was bored and the door was open." Demyx said, shutting off the TV.

"Some people call that breaking and entering, Demyx." Roxas said as he threw himself on the couch next to Axel.

"But the door was open!" Demyx protested.

"Why did you bring your sitar?" Riku gestured to the instrument that was propped against the couch where Demyx sat.

"Because I always take it with me wherever I go." Demyx grinned, stroking the neck of his beloved sitar.

"Axel, you might as well call Reno." Riku said. "Sora, call Kairi and Naminè and tell them to come on over."

"Yes, sir." Axel said in military fashion as he took out his cell phone.

"Reno's bringing his boyfriend over." Roxas informed the silver haired teen.

"Who's his lover?" Riku frowned.

"I dunno his name." Roxas said. "He's from Traverse Town."

"He'll be here in a minute." Axel said as he closed the phone on his chest.

"Who's Reno's boyfriend, Axel?" Demyx asked.

"Cloud Strife." Axel said.

"Is he hot?" Riku asked, to which he received a slap on the head from Sora.

"Not really." Axel shook his head.

"Because he's in love with me!" Demyx exclaimed.

"No, Demyx." Roxas shook his head.

"Why are you getting all defensive, Roxas?" Sora frowned.

"I'm not getting defensive!" Roxas exclaimed.

"This is like Avenue Q." Axel smiled.

"Whatever." Sora shrugged.

The door opened and Kairi and Naminè walked into the room.

"What's up, guys?" Demyx asked.

"We're not guys, Demyx." Naminè said.

"We're girls, in case you haven't noticed it." Kairi said.

"We'd never noticed." Axel's words dripped with sarcasm.

"Don't encourage him, Axel." Naminè crossed her arms in front of her chest.

At that moment, the door opened again and Reno and Cloud walked into the room, hand in hand.

"What's up, guys?" Reno asked.

"Always the last to get here, huh, Reno?" Axel smiled.

"You're the one who called me, Axel." Reno glared at his twin. "Guys, this is Cloud. Cloud, these are Kairi, Riku, Sora, Demyx and Naminè. You already know Axel and Roxas."

"Obviously." Cloud smiled at the redhead standing next to him. "We just saw them ten minutes ago."

"So let's get started!" Sora exclaimed.

"Should we get the other mat out?" Riku asked.

"Most likely." Roxas said.

"Go get it, Demyx." Axel said.

"Me?" Demyx squeaked. "Why me?"

"Because we could use some silence." Axel said, leaning back in the couch.

Demyx scowled, but retreated to Riku's room where the spare mat was kept while Reno and Cloud sat down on the couch next to Axel and Roxas.

"So you're from Traverse Town, Cloud?" Kairi asked in an attempt to make conversation.

"Yep." Cloud nodded. "And I hate it there."

"Apparently it hasn't changed from when Axel and I lived there." Reno informed the brunette.

"Riku, I'm going to raid your fridge, ok?" Sora said as he left the room.

"No, it's not!" Riku yelled, going his lover.

"Hurry up, Demyx!" Axel shouted upstairs.

"I can't find it!" Demyx's voice was heard. "Oh, wait! Never mind!"

"He's an idiot." Roxas informed a confused Cloud.

"I figured as much." Cloud said.

A few minutes later, Demyx could be seen and heard dragging the steel DDR mat down the stairs.

"About time, Demy." Axel said as Riku and Sora came back into the room.

"I couldn't find it!" Demyx protested as he hooked up the mat to the PlayStation.

"It can't be that hard to find." Kairi said.

"It's huge." Naminè added. "How could you miss it?"

"I had to go in his closet." Demyx said.

"I have no comment." Riku shook his head in a painfully slow sort of way.

"That would be best, yeah." Reno nodded.

Ten minutes later, when the system was finally hooked up, Kairi and Sora were on the dance mats, dancing away to _Captain Jack_.

"I love this song!" Kairi grinned.

"I don't!" Sora cried.

"You're doing pathetic, Sora." Riku couldn't suppress the smile that was forming on his lips.

"You try it then, Riku!" Sora exclaimed.

"It can't be that bad." Axel said.

"You're doing it next, Axel." Sora said as the song finished.

"Ok, I will." Axel said, dragging Roxas with him to the dance mats.

"I can't dance, Axel!" Roxas exclaimed.

"Yes, you can." Axel said. "You can if I say you can."

As it turns out, Roxas did very well. He actually did better than Axel, which shocked both redheads in the room.

"I've seen Axel's DDR, but I didn't think that you could beat him." Reno said as he danced to _Play that Funky Music_ with Cloud.

"Thanks, Reno." Roxas glared at the grey-eyed teen.

"Don't mention it." Reno smiled back.

* * *

A few hours later, Reno and Cloud were walking out for dinner from Riku's house. Everyone else was still at Riku's but Cloud and Reno thought that they should spend some quality time together before Cloud went back to Traverse Town.

"So no one knows about Axel and Roxas yet, huh?" Cloud assumed.

"Just me." Reno said.

"Why the secret?" Cloud wanted to know. "I mean, Riku and Sora are together, right?"

"Yeah." Reno nodded.

"So they can't be afraid that people will think it's weird." Cloud mused.

"Roxas wants to keep it a secret." Reno said as he wrapped his arm around Cloud's waist. "He wants to see how long they can go without being noticed."

"Oh." Cloud said.

"Our school is pretty homophobic, too, Cloud." Reno said.

"Like our school?" Cloud wanted to know.

"Sort of." Reno said. "Axel said that they had a debate about homophobia in English and the whole class was against gays."

"Except everyone at Riku's." Cloud said.

"Yeah. Axel ended up voicing his opinion, which really took everyone by surprise." Reno said.

"So they _do _know Axel's gay." Cloud was somewhat confused.

"He just said that he didn't think it should matter what someone's sexual orientation was." Reno said. "He only told me and Roxas that he's gay."

"Oh, ok." Cloud said. "Well, tell me when everyone finds out."

"I will." Reno said. "I definitely will."

**i hope it was worth the wait. i just posted an Axel story called Flurry of Dancing Flames. go check it out! review?**

**next scheduled chapter: who finds out first?**


	34. Exodus

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything. I would love to, but I don't.**

**Hey yo! It's Mika-chan! And this is the FINAL CHAPTER of Roulette. Man, it feels like a whole part of my life is over. I wrote this in about an hour today...one of my reviewers said that they wanted some more Cloud...so he's here for the last chapter! the deadly tale...concluded!**

Axel trudged down the stairs the next Monday, yawning hugely, still tired from playing HALO until three in the morning. Of course, Reno was sitting at the kitchen table, eating a bowl of Lucky Charms. What surprised Axel the most, perhaps, was the fact that Cloud was sitting next to him.

"Weren't you supposed to be home last night?" Axel frowned, setting his backpack against the wall.

"Want to get rid of me, Axel?" Cloud smiled.

"No, I'm just wondering." Axel grabbed a container of blackberries from the freezer and poured some in a bowl before sticking them in the microwave. "You were only supposed to stay here for the weekend, right?"

"Mom couldn't come and get me." Cloud explained. "She's coming later tonight."

"So what's he gonna do, Reno?" Axel looked at his twin. "We have school, remember?"

"That's why he's coming with us!" Reno grinned.

"Seriously?" Axel frowned, taking the blackberries out of the microwave and eating them at supersonic speed.

"It's ok with Mom and the principal says its cool." Reno said with a shrug.

"I guess I can't really complain." Axel said. "But we need to hurry up if we're going to go get Roxas."

"Why are we getting Roxas?" Cloud frowned as the boys left the kitchen.

"Because that's what we always do." Reno shrugged.

They arrived at Roxas' house a few minutes later. Roxas came to the door in his favourite cargo pants and Tokio Hotel T-shirt, backpack slung over his shoulder. He had a silver hoop in his ear that was identical to Axel's and the azure eyes lit up the minute he saw his boyfriend.

"Glad to see me, Roxas?" Axel smiled, giving the blonde a quick kiss on the lips before they headed toward Reno and Cloud, who were waiting at the driveway.

"I couldn't sleep." Roxas admitted.

"Bad dream?" Axel asked sympathetically.

"No, I just couldn't sleep." Roxas shook his head.

"I couldn't either." Axel said as they reached the other two.

"Why is Cloud still here?" Roxas frowned.

"You want me gone too, huh?" Cloud smiled.

"His mom couldn't get him last night, so she's coming tonight." Reno was obviously happy about being with Cloud for another day.

"So he'll be with us?" Roxas asked.

"That's the plan." Axel nodded, wrapping his arm protectively around Roxas' waist.

"This is going to be interesting…" Roxas smiled.

Biology was a bore. When was it not? Cloud and Reno had to share computers in their next class, since all of the computers were taken.

"You can just do whatever." Reno said. "You won't be here long enough to do something."

"Thanks a lot, Reno." Cloud rolled his eyes.

"What are we supposed to be doing?" Axel was logged on to his MySpace and had no clue what was going on.

"Making a FLASH video." Roxas rolled his eyes at his boyfriend's short attention span.

"Sweet!" Axel exclaimed.

"But don't do one of people shooting each other, ok?" Reno's lips formed a smile at the memory of Axel's last video.

"Of course not, Reno." Axel pretended to look offended. "They're going to stab each other."

WWII rolled by pretty fast. Their class was supposed to work in the library for an essay on the Pacific Theatre and they were in the library to do research. Riku and Sora were skipping out on Stat and Prob, Demyx was working on an essay for his AP European History class and Kairi and Naminè were doing research on different plays for Theatre IV.

It was very boring to do research for an essay that they didn't want to do. Roxas kept gesturing over to the bookcase full of information for WWII so he could be alone with Axel, but the redhead wasn't buying it. Eventually, the two separated themselves from the group and Axel asked, "What Roxas?"

"This is so boring." Roxas frowned.

"I know, I know." Axel said.

"I'd rather be kissing you than work on this stupid essay." Roxas scowled.

"I agree. Shall we then?" Axel said with that smile that made Roxas' stomach erupt with butterflies.

The two came together and kissed, wanting to be quick so they could get back to work. However, that one kiss wasn't enough. They soon forgot that they were in a library full of teens who were dead set against gays and that they could be exposed any moment. That didn't matter. They just wanted to be alone and soon enough, the essay was forgotten completely.

"Oh my god!"

Axel and Roxas stopped kissing, but still clung to each other to look at the end of the aisle of books. Demyx was simply standing there, mouth agape, staring at the other two.

"Demyx, what is it?" came Kairi's voice.

"Axel and Roxas…" Demyx couldn't quite speak.

"Yes, Demyx?" Axel said, breaking apart from Roxas, but still holding the blonde's hand.

"Why were you kissing each other?" Demyx asked in a shocked voice.

"Oh man, I'm getting Naminè." Kairi looked just as shocked as Demyx as she ran off.

"Because we can?" Roxas' reply sounded like a question.

"What happened?" Riku asked as he ran over with Sora.

"Axel and Roxas were making out!" Demyx exclaimed.

"It wasn't that bad, Demyx." Axel rolled his peridot eyes. "Just a little kiss."

"A _little_ kiss?!" Demyx shrieked, earning himself a reproachful look from the librarian.

"What happened?" Reno's voice could be heard as he reached the group with Cloud, Kairi and Naminè.

"Axel and Roxas were kissing!" Demyx exclaimed.

Cloud raised an eyebrow. "Didn't you two get enough at home?"

"Yeah, Axel. You snog your boyfriend enough, don't you?" Reno smiled.

"What?!" Demyx was really confused.

Roxas looked at Axel and said, "I guess the cat's out of the bag now."

"Thanks, Cloud." Axel glared at the blonde in Reno's embrace.

"Oh, don't mention it." Cloud grinned.

"So Kairi _was_ right!" Sora exclaimed.

"Huh?" Axel and Roxas frowned.

"We thought you guys had a thing for each other ages ago." Kairi explained. "It was pretty obvious."

"We wanted to see how long it would take before you guys started going out." Naminè continued.

"So how long was it?" Sora asked.

"About two weeks ago." Axel grinned, pulling Roxas closer to him.

"That long?!" Demyx exclaimed.

"We told Reno about it." Roxas said as he snuggled closer to Axel.

"Reno?!" Sora, Riku and Demyx glared at the other redhead.

"What?" Reno frowned. "Axel said that they wanted it secret for a while. I wasn't about to tell you guys."

"You could've told us." Naminè said.

"We wouldn't have told anyone." Kairi added.

"Well, I told Axel that I wouldn't." Reno shrugged.

"And Kairi was right." Riku said.

"Like always…" Sora scowled.

"So what now?" Axel asked.

"I still can't believe you didn't tell us." Riku was still a little upset by this.

"It's not that hard to believe." Cloud said.

"Who would trust a bunch of guys like you?" Axel grinned.

"Hey, this is like with me and Cloud." Reno said.

"Oh, Reno, don't go mentioning that." Cloud flushed, obviously embarrassed.

"What happened?" Riku asked.

"I confessed in a library." Reno smiled.

"And everyone heard." Cloud shook his head sadly.

"Wow." Kairi said.

"And our old school was worse than this." Cloud said.

"Kinda like the one I came from." Axel said.

"How many schools are in Traverse Town?" Demyx frowned.

"Just about as many in Hollow Bastion." Axel said.

"So what did they do?" Sora asked. "The people who were listening?"

"They just stared at us for a minute before ignoring us." Reno said.

"They really hated us after that." Cloud said, looking up at the redhead. "They still hate me."

"Poor Cloud." Reno smiled.

"Well, we'd better get back to work." Riku said.

"What work?" Sora frowned. "We're skipping Stat and Prob!"

"Oh, right." Riku shrugged. "Ah well. Let's go get something from the vending machines."

"Can't argue with you there." Sora smiled.

"Let's go, Kairi." Naminè said. "We still have our research."

"And I need to finish my essay. I hate the Middle Ages." Demyx whined as he left.

"Come on, we need to get working too." Reno said.

"I'm going to look for a book." Roxas said.

"Yeah, me too." Axel said.

"Suit yourself." Reno shrugged as he went back to the computers with Cloud.

While they were looking for a book, Axel's mind was reeling. Everyone knew now. There was nothing left to hide. But he didn't care. He loved Roxas too much to care. But what would their relationship turn out like? Like Riku and Sora's or Cloud and Reno's? Axel found he didn't want to know. He was with Roxas and that's all he really cared about.

**My god, I hope that ending wasn't so bad. I'm terrible with endings. wow...what to say at this point...thanks to all my reviewers! I'm sorry I can't thank everyone by name. There are too many of you, but that's a good thing. Thanks so much for reading! **


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